Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters
by lyokoMARVELanime
Summary: Sequel to MSGSP:Destiny Sentinels. After many years of peace and joyful events, the Autobots and their human allies now find themselves facing their darkest hour, as they race across both of their worlds and through space in order to face the greatest threat any of them have ever known: The return of the Chaos Bringer is now upon us all.
1. Dark Prophecy in Times of Peace

_**Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Autobots and Decepticons, mechs and femmes, and all other forms of life in this or any galaxy, you've waited patiently, you've counted the days until its arrival, and now, I am proud to say, that at long last, you shall wait no longer. For now at last, I am proud to present, the first chapter in the final adventure of the Cybertron Cosmic Era! Yes, that's right, it is here at last, and we are back for the third and final round of Gundam SEED Prime! And now, here's your host, and author of the story himself, the man behind this and many other epics, lyokoMARVELanime!**_

 _ **[cue audience applause]**_

 _ **AN: Hello fanfiction readers, reviewers and more! It is great to be back on this grand tale after so long, and let me just say that I did not expect to not be able to do all that much with most of my other stories. I mean, sure I did some updates for Code: Avengers, and MegaMan: The First Net Saver, but beyond that, the only thing I really seemed to do was post and work on my newest story, Keyblades of Future Past, which also happens to be my very first Kingdom Hearts story. I sincerely hope you'll all check out each of those titles and all my other stories, but you don't want to hear me go on and on about all that or the little bit of a writer's block I had encountered for most of my other stories, you just want to get on with the show here and now.**_

 _ **Shinn: You got that right, so stop wasting all our time and get on with it already!**_

 _ **Kira: Come on Shinn, just let the guy talk and get it out of his system.**_

 _ **Optimus: Agreed, after all, it has been some time since we were all last here like this.**_

 _ **AN: Thanks Kira and Optimus, at least someone gets why I babble so much in these things. Now without further ado, my friends, join me in saying...**_

 _ **Everyone:Let's roll out to the first chapter of Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters!**_

 _ **AN: I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Dark Prophecy in Times of Peace**

 **And so it was foretold in the Covenant of Primus that in an age of great light, when the twelve celestial spheres aligned with two worlds of life, two shadows of darkness would rise up to cover the galaxy, and expand to the worlds that were lost to the ages. As dreaded beings of ancient times rose to wreak their terrible destruction across the stars once more, a new change would come about and bring an even more terrible might with it. In the terrible days that would follow, a dark being long thought lost would rise again, threatening to consume all of existence, and plunging the universe into darkness once again, as his heralds paved the way for the Chaos Bringer's return.**

* * *

"Well, as nice as that story is, I'm not seeing any cataclysmic events happening anywhere on Cybertron, and I have yet to meet anyone who would fit the description of Unicron's herald," the red and silver Autobot known as Ironhide told his long-time friend and commander as said leader had just finished recounting an old legend from Covenant of Primus to the Autobots that were gathered in the Autobot Command Center on Cybertron. Optimus did not blame the weapons specialist for his skepticism, as many Transformers of today still considered many of the stories in the Covenant that foretold of future events to be nothing more than urban legends and myths, but still, Optimus could not help but be reminded of that particular prophecy.

"Be that as it may, old friend," Optimus said as he turned to Ironhide and the others who had gathered before him. "The timing of the events and the fact that the twelve celestial spheres the prophecy spoke of are nearly aligned with both Cybertron and Earth is too great of a coincidence to be ignored."

"Optimus, are you sure you're not just thinking that because you're feeling a little on edge," Silverbolt asked his commander. "I mean, it's been nearly three years since we last heard anything close to a peep from the Decepticons or any other rogue faction of Transformers now, so maybe the lack of their activity is starting to get to you."

"Nah, that'd be Grimlock who you're thinking of," Hound immediately rebuffed in good humor. "Not that I can blame the guy. What's the point of keeping my guns ready for action if I've got nothing to shoot 'em at?"

"I am well aware of how things currently stand my friends, never the less, I cannot help but feel that we have yet to have seen the worse from the Decepticons," Optimus then interrupted, putting an immediate damper of the humorous mood that Hound had brought to the impromptu meeting. "I feel in my spark that we may yet face our darkest hour, along with the rest of the universe itself."

The three Autobots all fell silent at that, as they had learned over the years that if Optimus had a feeling in his spark about something, then it was usually right. They honestly did not want to think about it that much though given all that had happened since Cybertron had been brought back to life nearly three years ago after the Second Bloody Valentine War, which had somehow earned the name The Terrible Autobot Civil War. In the time that had passed, Bumblebee, Arcee, and Bulkhead had all returned to Earth so that they could stay with their respective human friends, Kira Yamato, Cagalli Yula Athha, and Shinn Asuka, and also so that they could start up an official Earth Division of the Autobots, with Ratchet serving as the representative between the two planets as both the liaison for the Earth team and as the official government representative in Earth's new Sol Federation Government. A few Earth days after they had arrived back on Earth, Bumblebee, who had been promoted to Warrior mere days before his departure from Cybertron, was named as the Earth Division's commander, and Cagalli had been able to help the team set up a new base of operations that quickly expanded to become an entirely new city on Earth, which was proudly named New Iacon City. It was only a few Earth months later that the three received the fourth member for the Earth Division, who they all knew quite well and welcomed with open arms upon his arrival.

After he had completed his community service, Smokescreen had been immediately reinstated to his old ranking in the Autobots and had asked to be transferred to Earth so that he could serve there in order to make up for his mistakes in serving the late Sentinel Prime, and also so that he could reunite with Athrun Zala and become the Orb Soldier's official Autobot Guardian. After Smokescreen had done so, most of the other former members of Sentinel's team who were not part of his inner circle had followed his lead in doing the same along with Wheeljack, with the only ones to remain on Cybertron being Blur and Blaster and his Mini-Cons. Upon reuniting with their old human friends, Crosshairs and Drift were immediately named as the Autobot Guardians for Lunamaria Hawke and Dearka Elsman, both of whom became the Earth Autobots' primary human partners sometime before the former _Xanthium_ Autobots had arrived on Earth. Of course, the good news did not end there.

The good news continued to progress onwards to the wedding ceremony of Mu La Flaga and Murrue Ramius, and of course the wedding of Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Athha, both of which the Autobots had happily attended at the request of the two couples. To say that the ceremonies were lovely would be a great understatement, as the Autobots had never seen either of the two couples looking so happy in all the time that they had known them. It was a sight that truly made them grateful to have known their human friends and allies, and it was not one that they would tire of seeing anytime soon, especially since they were about to see it once again.

They were all quickly reminded of this fact when Jazz came running into the room saying, "Yo, guys, you can talk about all the doom and gloom stuff some other day. Right now, we've gotta get rolling to Earth, or did you guys forget that this was supposed to be a happy day?"

"How could we forget," Hound asked rhetorically. "This is something that we've all been waiting to see for ages. One of Earth's most famous couples is finally tying the knot and getting hitched."

"Yep, after three long years of waiting, we'll finally see Kira and Lacus get married," Silverbolt said with a small sigh. It was really no surprise to anyone that Kira had proposed to Lacus, but it was more of a surprise that it took him so long to do so. In fact most of them had half expected Kira to propose to Lacus during the reception of Athrun and Cagalli's wedding, considering that Lacus had been the one to catch the bouquet and Kira had caught the garter, and yet it still did not happen until a few months ago after Kira had taken Lacus out for what he had claimed was a simple dinner date. Naturally, most of the girls did not stop gushing over the story of how Kira had proposed to Lacus for weeks, but after waiting for so long, the big day had finally arrived, and the Autobots of Team Prime and the Earth Division were all honored guests.

"Perhaps it would be wise to put such thoughts on this prophecy on hold for now," Optimus smiled to his friends. "After all, we do not want to spoil such a momentous occasion. Jazz, is the ship ready to depart?"

"Yep, the _Omega III_ is good to go at anytime," Jazz confirmed. Shortly after returning to Cybertron, talks were held on whether or not they would decommission the _Omega II_ until Bumblebee said that he and his team would rather use the old ship themselves both for their return to Earth, and for the foundation of their new base. A few months later, construction of ships with miniaturized Space Bridge Generators were immediately underway, since the decision to make the device a standard issue on all Autobot ships was also made unanimous, and the first of those ships to be rolled out was a new model of the old ship that had served Optimus's team so faithfully in their time on Earth, hence the reason for naming it the _Omega III_.

"Then let us be off," Optimus declared. "Autobots, prepare to roll out!"

The team of heroes all then headed for the massive gold and red colored ship that so greatly resembled their old ship for their time on Earth, aside from the additional wings on the back and the added shield generators and scanning equipment for exploration purposes, and as they were headed there, they could already see the Dinobots, the Aerialbots, and all the other remaining Autobots from their time on Earth preparing to board the ship along with them. As he walked up the boarding ramp, Hound had to wonder aloud, "You know, even after all he's been through I have to wonder if Kira's feeling nervous about getting married yet?"

* * *

"Ask me that again when I'm at the altar," one Admiral Kira Yamato of Z.A.F.T. told Dearka Elsman when the blonde had asked him the same question that Hound had just asked.

"Kira, are you for real," Dearka asked in disbelief. "You've fought in mobile suit battles, gone toe-to-toe with numerous Decepticons, ace mobile suit pilots, and even Megatron himself, and helped lead the way to ending two wars. Getting married should be no problem for you."

"In all honesty, I think I'll probably be wishing that I was facing Megatron when I get up there," Kira admitted.

"Dude, relax, you'll be fine," Shinn assured his superior and friend. "I mean, this has been coming for ages, and if it doesn't happen now, then it'll likely happen later, assuming you guys don't plan to make us wait until after we're all dead or something."

"Thanks a lot Shinn," Kira told the crimson-eyed pilot flatly. "By the way, how are things going for you guys in the way of the romantic life?"

"Great on my part," Shinn replied proudly. "I mean, I guess you could say that everyone seems to think that it would be strange if things weren't going well between me and Luna. I know that she was really busy in the early days of the Autobot Earth Division's start up and all that, but all-in-all, they really couldn't be any better."

"Sure they could," Dearka corrected. "They could be leading to you guys doing the same thing that Kira and Lacus are doing some day."

"Sh-shut up Dearka," Shinn snapped at the blonde as his face began turning the same color as his eyes. "But before that, how about you fill us in on how things are between you and Miriallia?"

Dearka just groaned a bit before saying, "Don't even go there, man. It's honestly hard for us to tell how things are going sometimes. To be honest, I still feel like I'm walking on eggshells with her after she finally agreed to get back together again, and sure we still have a few fights every now and then, but to be honest, I'm just glad that they haven't led to us breaking up again."

"Speaking of which…" Shinn started to say.

"No, I'm not telling you guys why we broke up before," Dearka immediately cut him off, knowing that was the likely question that the Destiny pilot was going to ask.

Shinn merely raised his hands in surrender to that, just as Athrun Zala entered the room in his dress uniform with a proud smile directed towards his childhood best friend. "Kira, it's time to get out there," Athrun informed the Z.A.F.T. FAITH admiral.

"Right," Kira nodded as Dearka and Shinn stood up and followed him to the door. "Are they all here yet though?"

"Yep, all Autobots are now present and accounted for, and are all seated inside in their Holo-Forms," Athrun nodded. "You know, if you wanted them to be here as themselves, you could've just held the ceremony outside like Cagalli and I did."

"I know Athrun, but Lacus wanted to keep this as simple as possible," Kira replied. "Besides, I honestly think it's better this way, and at least they won't have to use their Holo-Forms at the reception."

Athrun just gave a small chuckle in agreement with his friend who he was serving as best man to today as he followed the groom into the chapel with the two groomsmen right behind them, happy that Kira did not seem all that nervous about today.

* * *

While Kira may not have seemed nervous, the same could not be said for Lacus as she paced frantically in her dressing room. "I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this," Lacus panicked aloud.

"Lacus, calm down," Lunamaria told the pink bride in an attempt to calm Lacus's nerves. "You _can_ do this. You're just getting married to the man of your dreams. There's nothing to be afraid of, and if anyone can do this, it's you."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one getting married to the man of your dreams! I'd like to see how calm you are when you're about to get married to Shinn," Lacus immediately retorted.

Normally, Lunamaria would have blushed at that last comment, but after spending a few hours trying to calm down the chairwoman of the PLANTs, she was more annoyed and exhausted than anything else. With that in mind, Lunamaria simply just let out a tired sigh as she plopped down in a nearby chair and threw her fellow bridesmaid, Miriallia, a look asking for help. Miriallia immediately nodded in reply and stood up to take her shot at calming Lacus's pre-wedding jitters, saying, "Lacus, just relax. Take a deep breath, and then think about all that you've been through in comparison to this, and then think about the one thing that has been constant in all of that ever since you met Kira, and you'll find that one thing is Kira. Like Luna said, you _can_ do this. You've been ready to do this for years now."

Lacus took a deep breath as Miriallia suggested and closed her eyes for a minute as she did as the freelance photographer had suggested, allowing a small smile to reach her face as she did before she finally opened her eyes again and said, "Okay, I'm calm now."

"No you're not," Lunamaria immediately argued as she pointed downwards. "You're still shaking."

Lacus took a small glance down at her arms to see her hands were in fact trembling a bit, and she immediately wrapped her arms around herself until her shaking finally stopped. "Okay, _now_ I'm calm," she then said with an unconvincing smile that neither of the other two girls bought.

It was at that moment that Cagalli walked into the room, and Lacus nearly jumped five feet into the air while letting out a small 'eep' in fright. Cagalli merely glanced between the bride-to-be and the two bridesmaids before she finally asked, "Pre-wedding jitters?"

"Yep," the two girls both replied in unison. Lunamaria then speed-walked over to the blonde as she half-pleaded, "Can you please do something to help us out here, you know, since you're the only one of us here that's actually married and gone through all this?"

Cagalli just nodded before walking over to Lacus and placing both hands on the pinkette's shoulders, forcing the chairwoman to look directly into her maid of honor's eyes. "Lacus, I know you're nervous, and you're probably freaking out all the way from here to Cybertron and back," Cagalli told her friend. "You're probably having all these doubts that are making you ask if you're making the right choice in marrying Kira, or if Kira's really willing to go through with this. Well believe it or not, Kira's going through the same thing with the same questions running through his head as well…and that's perfectly normal."

"Is that supposed to be _helping_ ," Lunamaria whispered to her fellow bridesmaid.

"Well it's not making me feel any better, and _I'm_ not even getting married today," Miriallia whispered in reply.

"Every couple goes through those doubts about marriage," Cagalli continued after she threw a small pointed look to the two whispering girls for a minute. "I know because I went through the same thing with Athrun, which you should know since you were there as _my_ maid of honor."

"Really," Lacus asked. "But I thought you had completely calmed down by the time that the ceremony had started."

"I only seemed like that on the surface, but I was freaking out on the inside," Cagalli admitted. "And I kept freaking out like that until I finally started walking down the aisle to see Athrun standing there, looking at me with the most loving look in his eyes that I had ever seen him give to me. The minute I saw him standing there, I knew that my heart was telling me that I made the right choice in saying yes to Athrun when he proposed, and I've never once had those doubts since then. So what's your heart telling you behind the pre-wedding jitters and the small panic attacks, Lacus?"

Lacus took another deep breath as she placed one hand over her heart with her eyes closed once more, and she listened for what it was trying to tell her behind the nerves as Cagalli had asked her too. Upon doing so, Lacus found that all she could see as she looked through her heart was Kira's smiling, loving face from everyday of their lives since they had met, right up to the day when he had smiled even more brightly than she had ever seen him smile after she had said yes to him when he had proposed. After taking another moment to enjoy this feeling, Lacus opened her eyes once again and looked Cagalli directly in her eyes as she smiled a genuine smile saying, "I want this more than anything. I've never been more sure of anything else in my life."

The three girls all nodded happily to Lacus upon hearing that before Lunamaria jumped up from her seat and said, "Okay, now that Lacus is done freaking out, which is still something that I find completely surprising, let's get the show on the road. I could hear our good, big, metal friends from space arriving outside, so that means it's almost time!"

The instant the violet-red haired girl said that, Lacus began to panic once again, leading Lunamaria to place a hand to her forehead as the other two girls led the bride-to-be out of the room. _Okay, I guess Cagalli was right when she said that she won't be done freaking out until she sees Kira up there,_ Lunamaria thought to herself before she followed the other girls out of the room.

* * *

Inside the church chapel, Kira had started to fidget in place a little before he finally leaned over a little to Dearka and whispered, "Hey Dearka, remember when I told you to ask me if I was nervous after we got up here?"

"Yeah," Dearka replied.

"Well in answer to that, I'd honestly rather be fighting Megatron, Sentinel, and Rau Le Creuset all at once right now," Kira then said, his nervousness seeping into his voice like a flood.

"Relax, will ya," Dearka told him. "We all knew that this was going to happen, just like we all know that you and Lacus are meant to be together."

"Dearka's right, Kira, as shocking as that may seem," Athrun assured his friend, while getting a small, pointed look from the blonde. "What you're feeling right now is completely normal, so stop worrying. You'll be just fine. Take it from someone who's been where you are now."

Kira nodded in thanks to his best man before Shinn then added, "Yeah and besides, you've already fought all of those guys and more, and you've come out on top just about every time. You can handle getting married."

"Thanks Shinn," Kira then nodded to the crimson-eyed pilot, and he then proceeded to scan the audience in the church as he moved back to his original position. Even though most of them were chatting amongst themselves, Kira could instantly tell who was here at a mere glance, the first of which being the Mu La Flaga and a pregnant Murrue Ramius La Flaga who were both smiling up at him happily. When everyone had found out that the former _Archangel_ Captain was pregnant, they were all ecstatic at the news, and they were all laughing a minute later when they found out that Mu had fainted when he first heard about it, but even so the two were both very excited about becoming parents. A short ways away from them, he could easily see Sai Argyle sitting next Meer Campbell, who had let her hair grow out to the point where it now stopped just short of her shoulders before changing her name to something that Kira could not quite recall off the top of his head at the moment. After he heard that Sai and the former false Lacus had started going out, Kira was admittedly surprised at first, but he was still happy that his old friend had finally found a new love interest since Sai's relationship with Flay had ended so long ago.

Continuing on, Kira was able to spot all of his other friends from both the _Archangel_ and Z.A.F.T., including Yzak and Shiho, Natarle Badgiruel, Flay Alster, Andrew Waltfeld and Aisha, and many others along with nearly every single Autobot that he had met and fought alongside of in their Holo-Forms, which were all sporting either an Orb Navy or Z.A.F.T. Forces dress uniform in their respective colors, including a few new Autobots that had recently arrived on Earth and of which he had yet to meet. Before Kira could think on that for much longer, the music began playing, courtesy of Nicol Amalfi, and everyone immediately fell silent as the ceremony began. A moment later, the Maid of Honor and the bridesmaids had entered the room coming down the aisle before taking their places across from their male counterparts, each decked out in beautiful, sleeveless light-pink dresses that almost seemed to be the same shade of the color as Lacus's hair while being neither too simple or too elegant.

As soon as the ring bearer had reached the altar and taken his place next to Athrun, Lacus entered the room being led down the aisle by none other than the Holo-Form of Optimus Prime, and the minute Kira's eyes saw Lacus, he could feel his face light up with a brilliant smile. Though he had always said that Lacus was beautiful before, right now, Kira thought that Lacus looked like a goddess in her long, flowing wedding dress that seemed to move like a calm sea when she walked. The feelings that Kira was having at that moment were immediately shared by Lacus when she saw him standing up there and giving her such a loving gaze, and she could swear that she felt her heart stop for a moment at the sight of him as any sign of her previous nervousness seemed to vanish into thin air.

"Kira, you might want to close your mouth," Athrun whispered to his best friend, leading Kira to immediately realize that his mouth was in fact agape from the minute he saw Lacus, and he immediately snapped it shut before allowing a bright smile to illuminate his face when Lacus was finally standing before him while Optimus stepped back to sit with Elita One.

At that very moment, as Kira and Lacus both gazed into each other's eyes, the two felt the world, no, the entire universe disappear around them and leaving only each other in its place, as they both realized once again how much they loved each other, and how strong their bond truly was, for they were now more certain than ever that their love would last for a lifetime if not a million lifetimes. Neither of them had barely even once registered anything being said as the ceremony went on until they each exchanged their vows and said "I do", and they then heard the pastor finally say, "I pronounce this couple, husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

They did not need any more prompting beyond that, as they both immediately wrapped each other in a loving embrace and kissed one and other passionately while their friends and loved ones clapped and cheered happily, while Murrue let a few tears of happiness fall just as Mu had handed her a handkerchief, with Sai doing the same for Meer a short while later. Each of the other couples and husbands and wives that were in attendance had soon wrapped their partners with a loving, one armed embrace, or a simple handhold as they watched the two happily; glad to know that Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne were now husband and wife at long last. When they all moved to the reception later, at which Shinn and Lunamaria had caught the garter and bouquet respectively, much to their blushing surprise, Optimus himself could not help but smile and let a few tears of joy fall down his face along with Elita as they watched the newlyweds and all the other couples among their Earth friends and fellow Autobots dance, feeling that all was right in the universe for the moment.

* * *

Somewhere out in a distant asteroid field was a secret, Autobot facility in which the peace defenders of Cybertron had long stored many of the most dangerous artifacts and weapons that had been captured from the Decepticons during their long war, or which they had created or discovered themselves and deemed too dangerous in the wrong hands. The facility, known as _Alcamor_ , had long held a grand reputation of being completely impenetrable due to the fact that the asteroid field it stood in was too hazardous to traverse without utilizing the special protection field that the Autobots had set up as a direct route into the facility, and which had a specialized security system in place that immediately disabled the field should anyone that was either not an Autobot or did not have special clearance from the Autobots try to pass through it. That record of being impenetrable had now ended today.

Alarms were sounding all throughout _Alcamor_ as Decepticon forces walked over the empty shells of dead Autobot soldiers that had been guarding the facility, all led by none other than Demolisher, Starscream, Quicksilver, and the new leader of the Decepticons, Galvatron. After glancing around the facility for another moment, Galvatron's eyes finally fell upon one vault in particular, prompting a dark, sinister smirk to reach his face before he blasted it open with his left palm. "At last, it is mine again," Galvatron stated in a soft, dark tone of voice as he removed the object that lay within the vault.

"Well if that's all we really need here, then perhaps we should be going," Starscream commented. "After all, the Autobots will know that we've been here when they find that little trinket of yours is missing, so why let them find out it was us sooner rather than later?"

"Silence Starscream," Galvatron snapped at the Seeker as he slammed his free hand into Starscream and sent him flying into the wall. "The Autobots will know that someone had broken in here, but they will not know who it was, assuming everything was done correctly."

"Sir, Soundwave reports that all security feeds were completely disabled a mere minute before we were even within range," Demolisher said with a salute. "And there's something else that you should know, sir."

"What would that be," Galvatron demanded.

"Simply that I have found additional materials required for my project, sir," a deep, monotone voice stated as a large figure stomped into the room. The four Decepticons turned to see a large, purple, black, and silver Decepticon with one eye and a cannon in place of his left arm approaching them, and the sight of this figure immediately brought a sinister smirk to Galvatron's face.

" **Shockwave** , my friend," Galvatron greeted. "What news do you bring to our cause?"

"I have discovered additional samples that will be very useful additions to my project, sir," Shockwave reported. "I am already preparing them for transport, as I felt it was logical to assume that you would request that they would be transported to my labs as soon as possible."

"You assumed correctly," Galvatron assured the terrible, Decepticon scientist as he made to lead the way out of the facility.

"Sir, might I ask what the logic was behind retrieving that particular item," Shockwave then asked.

"When I last held this blade, it served as the ultimate equalizer to one of the Autobots' most powerful weapons, and now, it shall do so once again, while also assuring our troops that victory is soon at hand and giving them the exact morale boost that they seemed to have been lacking," Galvatron explained. He then raised the item up, and revealed it to be none other than the glowing, purple and black blade known only as the Dark Star Saber, as he then added, "Soon, the Autobots and their precious allies will fall before our might, and that of your _Project: Predacon_ , and then, the universe will immediately follow. Wouldn't you agree, Rau Le Creuset?"

The very minute Galvatron had asked that question, a large, Gundam class mobile suit which bore a very striking resemblance to both the Providence and the Legend entered the facility, and upon opening the hatch, the pilot stepped out to reveal none other than the masked, former Z.A.F.T. soldier himself, wearing a new black and silver colored pilot suit with the Decepticon symbol standing out proudly on its chest armor. "Indeed I would, Lord Galvatron," Rau Le Creuset agreed. "This time, nothing will stand in our way, and the Autobots and their precious human friends shall fall before our combined might."

The two then shared a small smirk in premature victory as they both told each other via a telepathic link, _"And then, Master Unicron shall rise again to plunge all into darkness once more."_ The two then let out a pair of dark, insane laughs that seemed to echo all across the cosmos, almost as if the echo were letting the universe know, that the greatest threat it had faced in centuries, had just begun.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well, there you have it. The first chapter is up, and already we're seeing a lot of good things that had happened in the time that had passed between the beginning of this story, and that of Destiny Sentinels, and yes, it has been three years since Destiny Sentinels, and Kira and Lacus are just now getting married. Hey, when you've suddenly got a whole new set of responsibilities that seem to come at you one after the other, you'd probably be waiting a while for that too. I'll be honest though, I've never so much as been invited to a wedding before, so I have no clue if I did it justice, but as you can see, I did the best I could, so I hope you'll see that when you review._**

 ** _Kira: What about that whole prophecy thing at the beginning?_**

 ** _AN: Call it a little preview of things to come in this story, at least when it begins. As you may recall in some previous authors notes for this series, I mentioned that this story would be divided into multiple arcs. That little prophecy that Optimus was telling at the beginning is merely giving everyone a few hints as to what will be a major point for the first arc as well as the overall story._**

 ** _Optimus: And the new Autobots that you had mentioned?_**

 ** _AN: We'll be giving an official introduction to them in the next chapter. Of course, many of you may recognize some of the faces that will be appearing when they do. Now if there's nothing else to add to that, Onto the preview!..._**

 ** _A mere few weeks have passed since the joyous day of Kira and Lacus's wedding, and at that point, the Autobots inform their human friends of the events that had occurred at_** **Alcamor** ** _. Despite none of them reaching a solid conclusion on just what could have happened, none of them hesitate when a sudden Decepticon alert sounds, prompting Kira and Optimus to lead the others into a battle that they think they are ready for, but they soon find that nothing could prepare them for what they are about to face. Even with new Autobot forces joining in alongside them, can the possibly stand up to the first appearance of the newly rising darkness? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 2: Return of Fallen Darkness** ** _. Brace yourself for the terrible revelations Optimus and Strike Freedom!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	2. Return of Fallen Darkness

_**AN: Wow oh wow, the reviews I've gotten just from the first chapter of this thing. You guys rock, seriously. Also, you'll find a few of the questions you had asked will be answered in this chapter.**_

 _ **Shinn: Hey, I know that you're excited about all this and all, but don't you think you should answer a few review questions that won't be answered this chapter?**_

 _ **Yzak: Yeah like how you plan on having Bumblebee lead a team when they finally meet up with...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]**_

 _ **Yzak: Whoops. [Gets blasted with a sudden flash of all his most embarrassing defeats in battle along with all other embarrassing moments in his life]. DAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!**_

 ** _Dearka: Wow. Yzak got hit with that first._**

 ** _Shinn: Better him than me._**

 ** _Cagalli: You said it._**

 ** _AN: Ahem, moving on. In answer to one of the more common questions, no, Metroplex will not be making an appearance, more than likely, as I have no plans on bringing him into action at this point in time. Whether or not that changes in the future, only time will tell, but I can say right now, that it is not likely to happen. Also, in answer to someone who asked if Kup would return and finally see the light in this story, only to be paired up with Hot Rod, or whatever, I will say this: No, Kup is not coming back. He and all the rest of Sentinel's inner circle are dealing with jail-time for life, and none of them are likely to try and even attempt to get out early for good behavior, and even if they did, they would not likely get it. As for Hot Rod, I do not plan on having him appear any time soon in this story either. I'm not saying that he's not going to appear at all, but whether or not he does is a matter that is up in the air. Now with all that said, let's roll out!_**

 ** _Also, like in the last story, new Transformers that are appearing or being mentioned for the first time in this story series will have their names in bold._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Return of Fallen Darkness**

The entire Sol Federation was abuzz with the news of the wedding of Kira and Lacus for weeks, so much so that it was a miracle that the two had a peaceful honeymoon without someone asking one of them for an autograph, but thankfully, the excitement eventually died down in time for the two to return to their regular duties when they had returned from said honeymoon, both still feeling as though they could not be happier than they were now that they were finally married. The first week after they had returned from their honeymoon was rather uneventful, but it was not until the third week after that when things began to get exciting once again.

A strong example of this sudden uprising in excitement was the fact that a familiar black sports car with gold stripes was racing along the highways of the PLANT capital just a short way ahead of a white and blue police truck, each at incredibly high speeds. "Come on kid," the black and gold sports car form of Bumblebee shouted back, teasingly. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to keep up!"

"Sir, I really don't see why we need to be moving at such speeds that are above the established regulations for this road," the blue and white truck responded in a female voice.

"Well one reason is because this is for official Autobot business and we're in a hurry," Bumblebee replied. "The other is because you're too uptight and need to learn how to have a little fun while doing your job. Now try to keep up."

With that statement, Bumblebee immediately put metal to the pedal and blasted off the freeway before assuming his robot mode, followed by the blue and white truck, who also transformed to robot mode a minute later, revealing her to be an Autobot with a build similar to that of Elita One's and a set of white door wings on her back similar to Bumblebee's. After the female Autobot had hit the ground, she immediately began racing after Bumblebee, who had took off at a fast pace on foot before he vaulted over a small wall and transformed to vehicle mode once again. The female 'Bot was quick to do the same, with a bit more difficulty, and soon enough, they were both racing down the road again, until they spotted a large building with the Z.A.F.T. logo on the side of it, and on the electronic sign that they passed as they drove into the entrance to the parking lot. After going towards the building at the same speed for a minute, Bumblebee finally hit the brakes and screeched to a stop before assuming robot mode and stopping the rest of the way with a smug smirk on his face. That look immediately dropped when he had to cringe at the sound of the female Autobot crashing into something when she tried to follow his lead and copy what he did once again.

After leaving his female companion lying on the ground for a minute, Bumblebee finally helped her up and asked, "Okay Cadet **Strongarm** , can you tell me what you did wrong just now?"

"I thought you said that this was something we were doing for fun," Strongarm protested.

"We were, but it was also to help you improve your skills in handling a high speed pursuit scenario, which Arcee has informed me that you seemed to have been struggling with," Bumblebee then revealed. "So, what did you do wrong just now?"

Strongarm adopted a thoughtful expression for a minute before she finally answered, "I suppose I messed up my timing when calculating the stopping distance necessary for when I transformed in mid-halt."

"No," Bumblebee immediately rebuffed. "What you did was basically just copying what I did while forcing yourself to do the same, even if it meant that you probably couldn't do it. Don't try to copy how someone else does an action unless you can do it as well or in a way that you can handle. Try to find your own way of doing things. If this were a real pursuit scenario, you would've lost your target a few miles back. Copying your opponent move for move will only get you so far. You need to be able to outthink the other guy by doing what you can do, not by copying someone else."

"Understood Commander," Strongarm replied with a small salute.

"I've told you, stop calling me 'Commander'," Bumblebee then half-scolded. "It's okay for you to call me Bumblebee. How many times have I told you that now?"

"At least three hundred and sixteen times, sir," Strongarm replied. Bumblebee just gave her a weird look at that response before the cadet explained, "I've been told that the best Autobots are able to take careful note of and remember even the smallest things."

"Yeah, that doesn't really apply to everything, Strongarm," Bumblebee told her before he made his way over to one side of the building that they had stopped outside of. Once he had reached his destination, Bumblebee allowed a smile to reach his face before he tapped the window and said, "Paging Admiral Kira Yamato. Your three o' clock is here."

Immediately after saying that, the sole occupant of the office turned to face Bumblebee to reveal the smiling face of Kira Yamato himself. "Hey Bumblebee," Kira called out to his friend. "What's up?"

"The fact that you're late to the meeting, that's what's up," Bumblebee told his friend in a jokingly scolding tone.

"Wait, it's already time for that," Kira asked, a slight amount of panic entering his voice. "Okay, just give me a minute to finish up a couple of these reports and I'll be right out."

"Kira, I know that when you say finish up a couple reports it means that you'll try to rush through everything on your desk and make us even more late than we already are," Bumblebee reprimanded his friend. "Now put the pen down, move away from the computer, and step outside so that we can get going."

"I will, I just need a couple minutes. Really," Kira insisted.

"Kira Yamato, I will call your sister and your wife if you don't get out here now," Bumblebee then told his friend, playing one of the few cards that he knew would get Kira to drop everything. They all remembered the last time that both Cagalli and Lacus had to come and help get Kira to stop working so that he would come to a meeting with their friends, and needless to say, it was a sight that made everyone feel immensely sorry for Kira, while also feeling glad that it was him and not one of them.

The reaction to Bumblebee's ultimatum was instantaneous, as Kira had immediately vanished from the office and then reappeared next to his Autobot friend's foot in mere seconds, almost like magic. At that point though, Kira finally took note of the female Autobot that he was unfamiliar with and raised a questioning eyebrow in Bumblebee's direction, prompting the former scout to say, "Oh right. Kira, this is Cadet Strongarm, a recent graduate from the Autobot Academy. Strongarm, this is Admiral Kira Yamato of Z.A.F.T., a subdivision force in the humans' Sol Federation Forces."

Strongarm's eyes instantly lit up with excitement as she immediately gushed, "It is an honor to meet you Admiral Yamato, sir. I've read all about the exploits that you carried out alongside Optimus Prime and the commander here, and the fact that you helped our kind so much is a great inspiration that all life forms could learn from, Autobot, human, or otherwise!"

"Uh…thank you, Strongarm," Kira said, somewhat freaked out by the young, female Autobot's sudden fan girl moment. He then coughed before turning to Bumblebee and saying, "We should probably get going before the others start to worry."

Bumblebee nodded to his friend and immediately assumed his vehicle mode, allowing Kira into the passenger seat just as Strongarm had transformed as well. Once Kira was safely inside and buckled up, Bumblebee activated his comm. link and called out, "Bumblebee to New Iacon Base. We're ready to come in up here. Requesting Ground Bridge from the PLANT capital for two Autobots and one human passenger."

A few minutes later, the green vortex of the short range transporter appeared before them, allowing Bumblebee and Strongarm to race through and leave the PLANT capital. The whole time they were heading through the portal though, Kira could not shake the feeling that this meeting was going to lead to the precursor of many terrible things that were yet to come.

* * *

If you were to ask anyone on Earth where you would be most likely to so much as see an Autobot outside of their vehicle mode, they would almost always tell you that the place would be New Iacon City. The massive city was easily one of the largest cities on the entire planet, and not only that, but it could easily be considered as a place that was like a bit of Cybertron on Earth, mixed with human culture, so that both humans and Transformers could really experience many of the things that both worlds had to offer the two species. Of course, the main reason that one would say that you were likely to encounter Autobots outside of their vehicle mode was that it was also the place where the Autobot Earth Division's base was, and it was this base that Kira, Bumblebee, and Strongarm had just driven into after exiting the Ground Bridge, and where they were all greeted by the sight of all the other Autobots that Kira and his friends had fought alongside of, the most notable former members of the _Archangel_ , _Eternal_ , _Kusanagi_ , and _Minerva_ crews, and even a few new Autobots that Kira and most of his human friends had yet to meet.

After Kira had climbed out of Bumblebee and up to the raised platform that the other human members of the meeting were gathered on, he was immediately scolded by Cagalli for being late, which only lasted for a couple of minutes, as Optimus had soon let out a small cough in order to gain everyone's attention focused on him so that they could begin the meeting. "I thank you all for coming here today," Optimus began. "It is truly good to see so many familiar faces gathered together again after so long, despite the fact that most of us had just seen each other a few weeks ago at a most joyous celebration, but I do wish that this gathering were under similar circumstances to the previous one."

"Before anything else though, we should probably introduce everyone to those who haven't met yet," Bumblebee interrupted. He then gestured to Strongarm and a blue, red, and silver Autobot with large shoulders and a serious face as he said, "I know some of you have already met at least one of these two Autobots, but for those of you who haven't, I'd like you to meet Cadet Strongarm and Commander **Ultra Magnus** , second in command of the Autobots, and both of which are members of the Autobot Earth Division."

"Greetings young humans," Ultra Magnus said in a tone that was befitting of a highly decorated and by-the-book soldier.

"It's an honor to meet the heroes of Earth that had fought alongside the Autobots to save both of our worlds," Strongarm said in an official tone of her own that just barely hid how excited she really was.

After Strongarm and Ultra Magnus had received an introduction from each of the human members of the meeting, a new voice suddenly asked, "I hope you're not forgetting one of the smallest, yet most valuable members of this beam…uh, seam…team!"

Everyone immediately turned to see an orange Mini-Con with wheels for feet and round arms with three fingers for hands rolling over to them, just in time to see said Mini-Con bang his chest before he finally got the word he was trying to say out. "Sorry about that little guy," Bumblebee apologized. "This is the Earth Division's sole Mini-Con member, and its technical support specialist, **Fixit**."

"A pleasure," Fixit said to the group as he made an effort to shake everyone's hand.

"I thought that the little guy was fixed cycles ago," Crosshairs whispered to Wheeljack.

"He was, but he still has that one little speech bug pop up every now and then," Wheeljack replied. "Just be glad it hasn't ever happened while we're on a mission."

After another minute of greetings were exchanged, everyone turned their attention back to Optimus with one question being dominant on their minds. "What's happened, Optimus," Kira finally asked, voicing the question for everyone.

"Recently, the Autobot maximum security facility, _Alcamor_ was broken into by an unknown party," Optimus replied.

"I've heard about _Alcamor_ ," Audrey suddenly said, leading all attention to be directed to Cagalli's fellow leader of the Sol Federation and Orb. "It's been known to be the most secure Autobot facility, surpassing even the Iacon Vaults, and it's supposed to hold a number of powerful objects that the Autobots had captured from the Decepticons and had deemed too dangerous to allow to fall back into the Decepticons' hands, along with some similar objects that had been created by the Autobots, intentionally or otherwise. Is that correct?"

"Indeed it is, Lady Mineva," Optimus replied with a nod, showing how impressed he was with the young woman.

"Optimus, please, I have told you that you may refer to me as 'Audrey'," the last living Zabi told the Autobot leader.

"My apologies. I am more used to speaking with you in a more formal setting."

"It is an excusable offense with that reason," Audrey smiled in reply.

"Wait a minute," Shinn then cut in. "If this _Alcamor_ place is supposed to be the most secure place to store something, then how the hell did someone break into it?"

"That is a question we do not know the answer to," Optimus replied sadly. "We did not so much as suspect there would be a problem with the facility until _Alcamor_ had failed to provide a regular security report on its status. As such, we sent out a team led by the Autobot known as **Spartan** to investigate."

"Whoa, Spartan," Smokescreen gasped. "As in Spartan of the Three Hundred Autobots?!"

"You know him, Smokescreen," Athrun asked.

"Only by reputation," Smokescreen replied. "He was one of the first mechs to sign up with Optimus both when he and Megatron had begun their discussions for a new Cybertron, and when the Autobots first formed to fight the 'Cons. After Cybertron fell, he led a team of three hundred Autobots off to another planet that was almost as rich with energy as Earth, where they set up base and waged a guerrilla war with the 'Cons. After word went out that Cybertron had been restored, he came back, not with three hundred 'Bots, but with over a thousand 'Bots."

"1,256 Autobots to be precise," Strongarm immediately cut in.

"Well sounds like quite the 'Bot," Waltfeld commented with a smirk.

"Indeed he is," Optimus stated proudly. His face then grew somber as he continued, "Upon arriving at _Alcamor_ , Spartan's team discovered that the facility had been broken into, and that all the Autobots who had been assigned to defend it were dead. However, the most distressing news was what was taken from the vaults."

"What was in the vaults that were emptied," Talia asked.

"Most of them were the ancient remains of Predacons," Ultra Magnus reported, having read the report before the meeting had begun. "However, the one item that stood out among all the others was the weapon that Megatron had wielded in the final stages of the Bloody Valentine War; the Dark Star Saber."

"Are you serious," Lunamaria gasped in shock. "But I thought that thing had drifted off into space, never to be seen again."

"So did we, until we found out where it had drifted off to," Arcee corrected. "It turned out that the sword had somehow made its way to the _Xanthium_ before Sentinel had begun his campaign against the Eradicons alongside the _Minerva_."

"Sentinel figured he could use it to help speed up the creation of the Energon Saber, but after he determined that it was too dangerous for anyone to wield without having Dark Energon flowing through their veins like Megatron had, he made one of the few smart choices he made since coming to Earth and shipped it off to _Alcamor_ first chance he got," Crosshairs then finished. "It was kind of a controlled test run of his miniaturized Space Bridge that was meant to see if the thing was able to work again after the initial repairs were finished."

At that point, Rey stepped forward to ask, "If I may, you mentioned that the ancient remains of something called 'Predacons' were also taken from the vaults. What exactly is a Predacon?"

"The Predacons are ancient Cybertronians that were both the largest beings to ever emerge from the Well of All Sparks, and the ones to emerge during the final days of the genesis of Cybertron's original populace," Ratchet explained. "Their immense size and savage, though primitive minds made them the mightiest creatures to walk the surface of our world after the Original Thirteen Primes. However, a tragedy known as the Great Cataclysm then struck and led their entire race to become extinct. There has never been so much as one word of a living Predacon to this day."

"So, they're like the Cybertronian equivalent to Earth's dinosaurs," Miriallia asked.

"In a manner of speaking," Wheeljack confirmed. "Just don't let the Dinobots hear you say that. They're a bit sensitive about the comparison for some odd reason."

"But who would take a bunch of fossils and the Dark Star Saber," Meer then asked.

"We're not sure yet, but that's not our biggest concern at the moment, Meer," Jazz then informed the former fake Lacus.

"First off, my name is Feldt Grace now, not Meer Campbell," the pinkett told the Autobot first lieutenant. "Second off, why would it not be? Wouldn't that help you figure out the thieves' next move?"

"It is not a matter of discovering what the next move is, but rather a matter of discovering the identity of whoever is behind this," Optimus revealed. "For no one should be able to so much as approach _Alcamor_ without the proper clearance."

"And what kind of clearance do you need," Mu asked.

"You have to be a high-ranking, warrior Autobot, or have special clearance from one of those type of Autobots," Bumblebee revealed. "Anyone without either of those requirements would be fried in an instant by the security system, or just blasted out into the surrounding asteroid field that surrounds _Alcamor_ to be destroyed by the space rocks by said security system."

"I guess that explains why you guys would be concerned," Cagalli then said, a hint of dread entering her voice as she asked her next question. "You guys don't think that it could be more…rogue Autobots do you?"

"Impossible," Ultra Magnus immediately rebuffed. "All rogue Autobots were affiliated with Sentinel Prime, and they were all captured and sentenced to a life-cycle imprisonment in stasis prisons, or allowed a chance to reform, such as our companions here in the Earth Division. Any others that were discovered after the Terrible Autobot Civil War were immediately dealt with in the same manner by the same division, or by the other Autobots."

"But there is still a possibility, isn't there," Athrun asked.

"It is highly doubtful, Athrun," Optimus agreed with his second in command. "All Autobots, for the most part, have been accounted for upon their return to Cybertron or Earth and have proven to be loyal to our cause."

"What about the Eradicons," Shinn asked. "There are still some around right?"

"Yeah, but most of the known Eradicons are either off on another world, too scared to leave their safe haven, or have been locked up in stasis cells after they came here to Earth in an attempt to 'avenge their fallen master'," Bulkhead replied. "And if it were any other variety of the 'Cons, then it'd be even more unlikely since the system has a feature that's geared specifically towards the Decepticons."

"There one 'Con who can outsmart stupid computer," Grimlock suddenly growled. "Shockwave."

"But Grimlock, Shockwave hasn't been heard from since we trashed his tower with the Aerialbots cycles ago," Swoop immediately said. "I mean, you delivered the final blow to him yourself just before we had to evacuate so that we could avoid blowing up along with his tower."

"Me, Grimlock just bite off Shockwave's left arm," Grimlock immediately reminded Swoop. "Unless me, Grimlock see body, me, Grimlock not convinced Shockwave offline."

"Whether this Shockwave is still alive or not, it still doesn't answer the big question," Natarle then said.

"Who could've done this," Kira mused aloud. Sadly, no one had an answer to Kira's question, and they were not allowed much time to think on it any further as they were immediately brought out of their musings when the base's alarm suddenly started blaring.

"Fixit, what's going on," Bumblebee immediately demanded as the orange Mini-Con raced to his station and activated all the systems in said station.

"Massive Decepticon reading in Sector Twelve," Fixit reported.

"Can you identify any of them to determine who's leading their forces," Ultra Magnus requested.

"Negative," Fixit replied. "The number of readings is too great to get a positive ID on any of them."

"How many Decepticon signals is too great a number," Strongarm asked.

"About…an entire army's worth," Fixit replied casually. Unfortunately, his casual tone did nothing to alleviate the heaviness of the statement he gave, as everyone in the room was instantly worried by what that report meant.

"Why would the Decepticons be out there, though," Bulkhead asked. "There's nothing in that area but a bunch of rocks, barren land, and a volcano."

"Only one way to find out," Optimus stated as he turned to Bumblebee. "Awaiting your orders, Commander."

"With all due respect, Optimus, I think that this situation is too great for me to be the one in command," Bumblebee immediately told his leader, essentially giving Optimus full command of the operation that they were about to face.

Optimus nodded in consent and immediately assumed command, leaving a small team led by Ultra Magnus behind to act as a recovery team should something happen if the group heading out encountered any problems or required support in order to completely retreat from the field. As the team was preparing to head out, Kira stepped forward and said, "Request permission to join you on this mission, Optimus."

"Are you certain that you wish to do that, Kira," Optimus asked.

"Yes," Kira replied as Athrun, Shinn, Lunamaria, and all the other Gundam pilots in the room stepped up to stand alongside him. "After all, Earth is our home, and if the 'Cons want to mess with it in any way, then they'll have to get through us first."

Optimus looked to the gathered pilots until he finally nodded in agreement, but on the condition that only a small number of pilots with experience in fighting against Decepticon forces would be going with them. As such, Kira selected Athrun, Shinn, Lunamaria, Yzak, and Dearka to accompany them, while the rest stayed behind for the same reason as Ultra Magnus's group. Although she wanted to go with them, Cagalli was soon convinced to stay behind since they did not know what or who exactly they were facing, but only after she made Athrun promise that he would come back, to which her husband immediately agreed to do. As soon as the teams were ready, with the Autobots arming themselves with extra weapons and the pilots aboard their Gundams after the machines were sent to the base via the Ground Bridge, Optimus transformed into vehicle mode with the others following after him as he shouted out, "Autobots, Gundam pilots, roll out!"

A minute later, both teams had raced through the Ground Bridge to their destination, with Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Ratchet, Strongarm, Blur, Blaster, Ratchet, the Protectobots, and the Aerialbots being the only ones who had stayed behind with the others who had not headed out on the mission. After watching the portal shut down, Lacus and Cagalli both closed their eyes and folded their hands to pray that both of their husbands would be safe.

* * *

The trip from where the Ground Bridge had dropped them off to the site where the Decepticon signals originated from was a rather uneventful one, and it was filled with nothing more than small talk between both the pilots and the Autobots, mostly about things such as how someone in one person's family had been, how one person's girlfriend or boyfriend was doing, or even the most random of topics that seemed to just come up out of nowhere. Eventually though, all small talk had ceased the minute Kira and Optimus detected the Decepticon signals they were looking for and then immediately ordered both teams to quiet down and begin doing recon. What they saw after they took their first glance into the area was a sight that made them all pause in shock and slight fear.

When Fixit had said that an entire army's worth of Decepticons were out here, they had no idea that they would find what could easily be the entire Decepticon army when they arrived. Naturally they saw all the surviving Decepticon aces and commanders on site, but beyond that they could see Decepticon Vehicons on the ground, in the air, and on the cliffside, and wherever there were not Vehicons, there were Insections covering the gaps. Optimus had immediately asked Crosshairs and whoever else who could to scan the area to get a positive identification on which Decepticons were in the field here, but no one was really sure they would need it given that they could see each one of the Decepticon aces pretty easily.

At least, that was they all thought until Crosshairs suddenly gasped and whispered, "Guys, I see dead people."

"What'd you mean by that, Crosshairs," Lunamaria asked from inside the Impulse.

"I mean I see 'Cons that should be dead, and yet they're walking around like they never even so much as got a scratch on them," Crosshairs elaborated. "Just take a look and see for yourself."

Everyone did as Crosshairs asked, and upon further inspection, a gasp of shock escaped from Shinn, Athrun, and Lunamaria when they saw who Crosshairs had indicated. "Demolisher," Shinn exclaimed.

"Astrotrain," Athrun gasped.

"And Cyclonus," Lunamaria finished.

"What," Bumblebee gasped. "But that's impossible. Didn't you guys say that they were killed during the last war along with all the other Eradicons?"

"Yeah, and they were too," Crosshairs confirmed. "I should know; I saw the two stooges down there get blasted to the AllSpark, myself." He was of course referring to Cyclonus and Demolisher when he said that, and he then pointed to where the Constructicons were gathered, moving around like they were digging for something, as he then added, "And to top it off, it looks like the Buildin' Boys are all back together, because Bonecrusher is down there with his old Constructicon colors shinning like new."

"From where I'm sitting, it looks like Bonecrusher's not the only one with a new look, cause I remember Cyclonus and Demolisher having different colored armor the last time we saw them," Dearka then pointed out, and upon further inspection, everyone could see that the pilot of the Verde Buster was correct. Where Cyclonus was once light blue and tan, he was now black and white, respectively, and they could also see that Demolisher's old green and silver colors had been replaced by a tan and red color scheme.

"Do you guys think that maybe there's a chance they're actually just Demolisher, Cyclonus, and Bonecrusher's long lost twins," Shinn asked hopefully.

"I am afraid not, my friend," Drift replied. "That is indeed them, only now they seem to have reverted to their original Decepticon forms, except I can feel that they are more powerful now than they were before."

Kira glanced up from the three 'Cons who were somehow back from the dead, until his gaze landed on a pair of figures that were standing over all the others on top of one of the cliffs in the distance. One of the two was completely purple with some black on him, and had a large cannon in place of his left arm along with a single, purple eye, while the other was a figure with dark purple and black armor that seemed to tower over the first, a set of wings on the back folded down in a "v" shape, a set of three horns on top of his head, and a large, yet sleek looking Fusion Cannon mounted on his right arm. At the sight of this second figure, Kira had to let out a slight gasp of shock of his own before he nervously asked, "Guys, am I seeing things or does that large guy standing up there with the Transformer Cyclops look a lot like Megatron?"

Upon hearing Kira's question, the entirety of the team glanced up to where Kira was looking, and nearly every Autobot froze in shock while Grimlock snarled, angrily, "What in the name of Primus is Shockwave doing here?"

"Shockwave," Yzak asked. "You mean _that's_ that Decepticon scientist that turned you and your team into the Dinobots?"

"Yeah, and it look like me, Grimlock right to think that Shockwave not dead. It never that easy, especially with Shockwave."

"That doesn't explain why what looks like an upgraded, more dangerous version of Megatron is here," Ironhide pointed out. "I mean, did Megatron ever have a twin brother that no one knew about, because otherwise, how else can that be explained?"

"There is one way," Optimus replied to his friend. "The data that Z.A.F.T. had recovered after the fall of Heavens Base during the last war."

"Wait, you mean the video transmissions that talked about something going wrong in that _Project: Nemesis_ thing," Athrun asked.

"That's exactly what he means," Springer replied. "Don't forget that at the end of that transmission, that drone that had suddenly become active on its own actually spoke into the camera."

"And when it did, it spoke using Megatron's voice," Optimus reminded them.

That was a thought that none of them wanted to even consider. The very idea that Megatron had somehow come back from the dead and was now stronger, more powerful, and more dangerous than ever was scary in itself, but after seeing the large figure standing next to Shockwave, they could not deny that the possibility was likely to be very real. As they were all thinking about this though, Elita One had glanced down to where the Seeker Siblings and Airachnid were standing and noticed something was off. "Hey guys, do any of you see Quicksilver anywhere," Elita finally asked.

The team all glanced around the site for a few minute before they all replied in the negative to her question. "That's weird," Jazz commented. "Usually that 'Con is always with Starscream unless he's out on a mission, or he's trying and failing to talk to Slipstream. Never did understand why that kid would be attracted to his master's sister."

"Okay, attempting to block out the disturbing image of Decepticons in love," Dearka muttered while trying to suppress a shudder. He then shook his head before asking, "Is there ever a time that he isn't with him when they're on the same mission?"

"The only time that would happen would be when…" Crosshairs started to say before he paused and joined the other Autobots in adopting looks of horror as they began frantically searching the area again.

"When he's acting as a lookout for us," Optimus finished just before the team had finally spotted the triple changer apprentice to Starscream, but it was already too little, too late.

"Autobots are here," they heard Quicksilver shout as he readied his rifle and began firing a few shots at the team who immediately scattered to avoid getting hit.

"We've been made," Bumblebee shouted, slipping into his role as commander for the Autobot Earth Division for a moment. "Autobots, take cover and prepare to return fire!"

"Anyone with sniper capabilities, move quickly to bring Quicksilver down for even a moment, if possible," Optimus then said, taking over for Bumblebee from there. "I will engage the one we believe to be Megatron." With that said, Optimus immediately activated his jetpack and blasted into the air, directly for the Megatron look-a-like and Shockwave.

Grimlock snarled in response to this and immediately assumed his tyrannosaurs mode as he roared, "Dinobots charge! Smash all 'Cons, but Shockwave is Grimlock's!"

As the Autobots scrambled to carry out their orders while firing on the attacking Decepticon army, Kira turned slightly to his fellow pilots and began barking his own orders as he said, "Dearka, Yzak, take cover and provide both us and the 'Bots with some covering fire! Shinn, Luna, Athrun, you guys try to deal with the Vehicons but try to avoid engaging any ace Decepticons if you can! I'll try to backup Optimus!"

"Roger," the five pilots replied in response to the Z.A.F.T. admiral's orders as the Strike Freedom blasted after Optimus. Immediately following that, it soon became clear that the small band of heroes were immediately fighting a battle of overwhelming odds, as while they each had plenty of their own strengths, the Decepticons had the advantage in numbers, both in terms of drones and aces, but even so, that was not going to stop them, and they were quick to start blasting or cutting down any enemy that tried to fight back, lighting up the entire area with energon blasts and explosions.

Eventually, a moment came where it seemed that the Autobots and Gundam pilots had a chance of actually pulling through, until suddenly, some of drones and a number of the aces started pulling back a little bit. Everyone was confused by this for a moment until a sudden roar reached all of their ears, and they looked up to the sky in order to try and spot the source of such a monstrous sound. What they saw terrified them all, as flying down towards them was what looked like a massive, metal monstrosity with brown and dark orange armor, large, dark orange wings, and vicious, glowing yellow optics that glared down at them like an animal would if it were staring down at its next potential meal.

"Since when did the 'Cons have a giant dragon on their side," Dearka asked over the sound of the explosions that still rang throughout the battlefield.

"A what," Wheeljack and Drift both asked, since they were the closest to the sniper Gundam pilot at the time.

"You know, big, scary, with wings, breathes fire, and looks a lot like that," Dearka exclaimed as he saw the aforementioned, metal dragon's throat suddenly start to glow a bright, fiery red before it let loose a massive blast of fire from its mouth, directly towards where they were standing.

"Move! MOVE," Wheeljack shouted as he and the others who were in the area immediately scrambled to get away from the blast zone, which was soon hit by the fire blast. The explosion that hit was enough to have destroyed everyone that was previously in that area had Wheeljack not shouted for them all to get clear in time, but the resulting shockwave had sent them all flying off of their feet and down the cliff until they were in the valley bellow, where the massive beast had landed.

"That's no dragon," Elita One whispered in fear.

"Could've fooled us," Yzak told the sparkmate of the Autobots' leader.

"No she's right," Bumblebee immediately replied. "That's…a Predacon."

The minute the words had left Bumblebee's mouth, everyone could feel themselves either tense or freeze in both shock and fear. If the beast before them truly was what Bumblebee had claimed it to be, then they were all likely about to be in for the fight of their lives, and it was likely going to be one that they would need to be very lucky in order to survive, let alone win.

* * *

Optimus, Grimlock, and Kira had all seen when the Predacon had appeared and then landed before their team, and while Grimlock had immediately turned back to face the draconic beast with the rest of the Dinobots, Optimus and Kira both elected to keep moving forward until they had slammed into the Megatron duplicate and Shockwave before landing before them both. The minute they did though, Shockwave had transformed into a Cybertronian tank and charged into the battle so that he could fight alongside the Predacon, leaving his leader to face the Prime and Gundam pilot alone as said leader transformed into a similar tank and fired a few rounds at them both.

Optimus and Kira were quick to avoid the shots by rolling away and blasting to the side, respectively, and Kira was the first to take action by arming the Strike Freedom's blaster arm and firing a few rounds at the enemy tank while Optimus elected to charge in and then attempt to slam a powerful fist into the front of the enemy they were facing. The figure merely rolled forward at his top speed as Optimus closed in on him, leaving the last Prime to hit nothing other than the ground that was originally bellow his opponent, and the figure then transformed into a fearsome looking jet that looked similar to Megatron's old vehicle mode except with more pointed spikes throughout the body, especially on the wings. The jet form of their enemy then spun through the air as both Optimus and Kira fired their weapons at him, Optimus doing so after he had pulled out the Ion Blaster he had brought with him, and then slammed down on the ground before them once again, chuckling at the two for a minute, which led them both to pause in their attacks to wonder what he suddenly found so funny.

"This certainly brings back memories, doesn't it…Optimus," the figure then asked with a devious smirk in a voice that Optimus immediately froze in recognition of. The voice may not have been as deep as it once was, and yet still sounded more menacing than before, but there was still no way that Optimus could ever mistake that voice.

"It can't be," Optimus gasped. "Megatron? You're…functional?!"

"Megatron" merely chuckled in reply for another minute before he finally replied, "Ah Optimus, it seems that you do not quite fully understand what has truly happened to me in my absence. Then again, I suppose that you are not to blame for that, but in truth, I was once Megatron, but now, I have been reborn, stronger and more powerful than ever, something I see that you are well acquainted with now." The figure had gestured to Optimus in regards to Optimus's new form that he had obtained after the Forge of Solus Prime was used to heal him when he mentioned that last part, and he then went on to say, "However, unlike you, I am not the same as I once was. I have been reborn, but I am now a being that is far greater than Megatron ever could be. Now, you shall not only fall before me, but soon enough, you shall join the rest of the universe, and kneel before…Galvatron."

"Dream on, Galvatron," Kira shouted in reply. "The day that Optimus or any of us ever kneel before you is the day that Hell freezes over!"

"Brave words, but that is to be expected of the ultimate Coordinator," a new voice suddenly cried out, and this voice caused Kira to freeze in shock due to how familiar it was, before he finally turned to the source and saw a Gundam class mobile suit that seemed to be the Providence and the Legend put together land before him.

"No…you can't be," Kira whispered in shock and slight fear.

"I see you've already figured it out, Kira Yamato," the voice called out before his masked face finally appeared in Kira's mind, confirming that this person was indeed who Kira had feared him to be. "I am Rau Le Creuset, reborn from the fires of Hell, and I now stand alongside Lord Galvatron in his grandest of goals, so that mankind's dream and future will be shared with the entire universe!"

Optimus and the Strike Freedom Gundam were now standing back-to-back as they faced their respective opponents, neither one entirely sure what to expect from the battle they were about to face, as Galvatron then declared, "Do you see, Optimus? This day is the day when it all begins, for Le Creuset and I are the prophets of the rising darkness that the legend spoke of!"

The minute that Optimus heard that, he immediately found himself freezing in fear once more, as he knew exactly what legend that Galvatron was talking about, for it was the same legend that he had recounted to the Autobots a mere few weeks ago before they had come to Earth for Kira and Lacus's wedding. If this Galvatron was truly speaking the truth, then that meant that this battle was only the beginning of the many terrible things to come that the same legend had spoken of. Despite knowing this, he was completely unprepared for what came next.

Just before any of the four combatants could make a move to charge their opponents, the ground suddenly began to quake violently beneath them, as the nearby volcano that the Constructicons were digging around suddenly began to erupt, drawing each of their attention to it as it did. The sight that greeted them led Optimus and Kira's eyes to widen in shock, while Galvatron and Le Creuset both smirked in dark glee, almost as though they had somehow succeeded, for the sight they saw was not one that any of them had been expecting. "It can't be," Kira breathed in his shock.

"Dark Energon," Optimus then queried in his own astonishment. "Erupting from the Earth?!"

That was indeed what greeted both eyes and optics, for the dreaded substance that had long come to be known as the blood of Unicron was indeed erupting from the volcano, and the sight of this alone, was only further proof, that the rising darkness that legend had spoken of had just begun to show its face.

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Autobots**

 **Current Active Members:**

 **Optimus Prime (Leader)  
** **Ultra Magnus (Second in Command of both main forces and Earth Division)  
** **Bumblebee (Leader of the Earth Division)  
Elita One (Acting Chief Medical Officer)  
Jazz (First Lieutenant)  
Ironhide (Weapons Specialist)  
Ratchet (Government Rep. for the Sol Federation and Liaison to Cybertron for Earth Division, Former Chief Medical Officer)  
Bulkhead, Hound, Wheeljack, Crosshairs, Drift (Wreckers)  
Smokescreen  
Arcee (Third in Command of Earth Division)  
Blaster (Communications Specialist)  
Blur  
Springer  
** **Silverbolt, Jetfire, Jetstorm, Wing Saber, and Air Raid (Combiner Team: Aerialbots, Combined Form: Superion)  
** **Evac, Inferno, Roadblock, Prowl, Red Alert (Combiner Team: Protectobots, Combined form: Defensor)  
Fixit (Earth Division sole Mini-Con member and technical support specialist)**

 **Recent Bio Intel:**

 **Since the end of the even known as the Terrible Autobot Civil War, the Autobots have effectively become a team of specialized peace keepers that protect both Cybertron and Earth from the most dangerous of threats. After receiving approval from the Sol Federation, Optimus Prime began allowing a team of Autobots to officially begin the Earth Division with the now Warrior rank Lieutenant Commander Bumblebee in command of all operations on Earth. Despite his hesitance in accepting the role, Bumblebee had proved time again when challenged that no Autobot was better suited to lead the Autobot Earth Division than him, the sole exception being Optimus Prime when the situation seemed to great for the young warrior to handle either in his own opinion, or that of Optimus's.**

* * *

 ** _AN: And that's a wrap for now. In case its unclear, yes that Predacon is in fact Predaking in his beast mode. Also, Ultra Magnus from Prime and Strongarm from Robots in Disguise (2015) are now in the story, which makes the already massive line-up of Transformers in this story that much larger, and its only going to get bigger from here._**

 ** _Moving on, a little shout-out to my pal "Many Faced Mage" for his contribution of the OC character Spartan. Said OC may have a few other small mentions now and then later on in the story, at his request of course, but I sincerely hope that I might be able to make him an official major character in this little adventure. Until then though..._**

 ** _Then, now our heroes know of the current strength of their enemies along with the fact that Megatron is back as Galvatron and Le Creuset is right alongside him. Also, who here caught that little moment from Transformers Prime there at the end? Yes, Dark Energon is coming up from beneath Earth's surface, and that's just the beginning of what's to come._**

 ** _In all honesty though, I wanted the battle in this chapter to go smoothly without any interruption, ya know, as in I didn't want to leave it off on a cliffhanger like I did, but the more I worked on this, the more it seemed like the chapter was just too long, so I had to extend it to next chapter, which you'll get a look at, now. Onto the preview!..._**

 ** _The battles erupt in a fiery fury that is unlike anything the galaxy had ever seen. As Optimus and Kira struggle in their battle against Galvatron and Le Creuset, the remaining Autobots and Gundam pilots on site find themselves barely holding their own against the terrible Predacon that now stands before them. Powerful Gundams soon begin to fall to the point of near destruction at the Predacon's terrible might, and the fact that Dark Energon is now covering the area like a rain storm is causing our heroes to find themselves unable to fight at their full strength. Can our heroes survive this encounter, and when the battle ends, what plans will need to be put into action for both sides. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 3: The Desperate Struggles** ** _. Ultra Magnus, hurry before it's too late to save your allies!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	3. The Desperate Struggle

_**AN: Okay, not gonna lie, I was honestly expecting this chapter to be a little bit longer than it turned out to be. I honestly felt bad about leaving you guys hanging like I did with how the last chapter ended, so naturally I had to get this one out ASAP, so here it is. I really have nothing more to say now, aside from telling you all that yes, Galvatron is in fact a triple changer. I just really felt that it showed that Galvatron is more powerful now than he was as Megatron.**_

 _ **Le Creuset: Can we get on with this? I would like very much to reach the point where Kira and the others...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER [hits control]**_

 _ **Le Creuset: [Gets catapulted into a giant pie] BLEH! I HATE APPLE PIE!**_

 _ **AN: Now that's just completely un-American. Good thing he's a character from a Japanese cartoon then, huh? Now, let's roll out!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Desperate Struggles**

A few hours had passed since the team had deployed from the New Iacon Base, and everyone was naturally feeling worried after not hearing anything from them in all that time. Ratchet and Fixit were both diligently tracking each of the signals from the Autobots and Gundams that were in the field, but the fact that the team had yet to report in on any sort of status in all that time made those efforts mean very little in the way of alleviating any worries. Of course, Lacus and Cagalli were probably the most worried out of everyone, given that their husbands were two of the people in the field, and really, the only one who was really able to sympathize with that at the moment was Arcee, given that her boyfriend was also out in the field for this mission as well. This was mostly due to the fact that most of the other Transformers in the building were either ones who had just met them, or had never been in a relationship before, and the fact that all the other couples among their group of human friends were all together in the base as well, with the exception of Shiho and Yzak, not that the two would ever admit it, even after all these years.

As she gazed on at the monitor that displayed the positions of both the team and the Decepticon signals, Lacus could feel her worries grow when she saw the two groups of signals suddenly converge to engage one and other. She would even go so far as to say that she was tempted to go into SEED Burst mode just so she could try and reach Kira somehow, but she was able to calm herself down enough to remember that Kira would most likely be fine so long as he was with the others. Lacus was so caught up in her thoughts that she did not even hear the sound of metal footsteps approaching her until the voice of the one they belonged to suddenly said, "Excuse me, Mrs. Yamato?"

Lacus immediately turned around and saw the red, blue, and silver Autobot she had just been introduced to earlier along with the others standing by the platform and looking down at her with mild concern seeping through his otherwise stoic face. "You're Ultra Magnus, right," Lacus asked cheerfully as she tried to put on the small smile that she normally wore when speaking to others.

"That is correct, ma'am," Ultra Magnus confirmed. "Although, simply Magnus will do just as well if you find it easier to remember."

"Thank you. I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Lacus replied with a nod.

Magnus then seemed to try composing himself for a minute before he then said, "First, let me just say that it is a privilege and an honor to finally meet you in person. I had read the reports that Optimus and the others had filed on you and the other humans that they had fought alongside of, while also hearing a great deal of things about you from some of the other humans that I had encountered since my coming to Earth, and I must say, while you did things much differently than I would, I find your bravery and determination in your actions and beliefs to be quite admirable."

"That's very kind of you to say, Magnus," Lacus then thanked happily. "Is there something else though?"

"Yes," Magnus confirmed. "I merely wished to assure you not to worry about your sparkmate and the others. Commander Bumblebee, Optimus, and the others will not allow anyone to be harmed if they are able to prevent it from happening, especially in the case of any humans."

Lacus nodded in thanks once more before she then said, "I appreciate your concern, Ultra Magnus, but I'm truthfully not all that worried. After all, as Kira has often told me when he goes off to do these sorts of things with the Autobots, he's with Optimus."

Magnus allowed a small ghost of a smile to appear on his face before he said, "If I may, Mrs. Yamato…"

"Just plain Lacus is fine, Ultra Magnus," Lacus then interrupted.

Ultra Magnus nodded in thanks for that before continuing where he left off. "When I once asked Optimus Prime if he were ever truly worried about those missions he went on during his time here on Earth, he actually told me that he was not worried because he was with Kira Yamato."

Lacus looked at Ultra Magnus in surprise for a moment before she smiled and nodded in thanks for his sharing that, feeling all the more reassured that Optimus and Kira both relied on each other just as equally as the other. That feeling of reassurance quickly became worry when the scanners in the base suddenly went off in alarm. "Sir, I'm picking up a very strange leading…er, feeding…reading! At the site that the team was sent to," Fixit reported.

"What do you have to report, soldier," Ultra Magnus requested as he and the others came over.

"I'm not entirely certain, sir," Fixit admitted as his small hands flew across his control board. "From what I can tell it seems like an energon reading, but at the same time it isn't an energon reading. It's very peculiar."

"Let me see," Ratchet then demanded as he pulled the information onto a larger station. Ratchet's optics had only looked over the readouts for a few seconds before he finally gasped in fear at what he saw.

"What's the problem, Doctor," Ultra Magnus asked, voicing the question for everyone.

Ratchet did not give an immediate response, but instead spun around to everyone and shouted, "We have to get Optimus, Kira, and the others out of there! NOW!"

"Ratchet, what is it," Natarle then asked again.

"Those readings have only one match," Ratchet then said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "Dark Energon."

That was reason enough for everyone to immediately begin to worry again before springing into action, an action that was immediately led by the blonde co-leader of Orb and the Sol Federation. "Get the Akatsuki, Nero Blitz, Rosso Aegis, and Saviour over here now," Cagalli demanded. "Magnus, prepare your team to move out."

"Cagalli it's too dangerous for you or any of the others to go out there," Ratchet tried to reason. "We're already taking a large risk sending anymore Autobots into the field, as the Dark Energon would cause series harm to their systems just from being within proximity to the substance, not to mention the harm it could likely be doing to the mobile suits!"

"I realize that Ratchet," Cagalli assured the doctor. "But we can't just stand back and let you guys do all the work with saving our friends and loved ones."

Ratchet found he could not argue with that, and immediately turned to Sai, who simply nodded in response to the unasked question before he ran over to a control station along with Feldt so that they could send out the call to both Morgenroete and the other facilities that were running maintenance on the respective Gundams. "Morgenroete and all other facilities report that they're scrambling to prepare the machines and will be ready to send the mobile suits through in a matter of minutes," Feldt then reported a minute later as Ultra Magnus lead the Autobots to the weapons locker so that they could collect some extra firepower just in case.

"Let's pray that Optimus, Kira and the others will be able to last that long," Ratchet whispered to himself as he took up a position in the base similar to his old one in the previous Autobot bases in preparation.

* * *

Dearka was gritting his teeth so much in concentration that he was honestly surprised that they had not cracked under the stress yet. His focus and his targeting sensors were zeroed in on the large metal monster that had landed before his teammates, and while he was not entirely sure if Predacons had the same weak points as the modern day Cybertronians, he knew that anything that could fly was always crippled the minute their wings were hit with a good shot. The problem was that most of the time when he was aiming at the wings of something, the wings did not move like an animal's wings. Still, the blonde definitely preferred his current situation over the one that had befallen the group that was having a more up-close and personal encounter with the giant metal dragon.

Of course, Yzak was not exactly satisfied with Dearka's current decision on what his focus should mainly be on. "Hey Dearka, how about sparing a few shots for the Seeker siblings or the flyers that didn't get out of the battle and are bearing down on us right now," the silver haired pilot shouted as he parried a blow from Sliptstream's sword with the Blu Duel's beam saber.

"Excuse me if I'm more focused on the thing that could easily be in Cybertron's version of Jurassic Park than the family with a whinny leader," Dearka snapped in reply as he let loose a volley of missiles on some Vehicon flyers that attempted to launch a strafing maneuver.

"Fair enough," Yzak conceded as he blasted a few Vehicons with the Blu Duel's beam guns before he let out a small growl in frustration at how his mobile suit sent out another error warning about a system malfunction. "What is going on with our machines?!"

"It's the Dark Energon," Hound explained as he fired a few round from one of his own guns into the crowd of remaining Decepticons. "It's messing with all of us more and more every second."

"And since our machines run on Energon Reactor Cores, it's practically poisoning the Gundams as well," Dearka finished.

"It is an unfortunate truth," Drift confirmed as he swung his swords at some of the enemy, his movements showing just how much it was affecting them all given that they were slower than they normally were.

"Kinda makes me wonder why gruesome over there isn't as affected by it," Crosshairs commented from his current position, his Nucleon Assault Rifle firing at anything that entered his sights.

"I think we all know the answer to that one," Bulkhead said as he rolled away from the Predacon's claws just as they came down on where he was standing a second ago. "He's made of tougher stuff than us."

"Well, let's see if his stomach is the same," Wheeljack commented as he armed a grenade and tossed it towards the Predacon's currently opened mouth. For a moment, it seemed that Wheeljack's signature one grenade, one shot trick was going to come through for them, but at the last second, the explosive was knocked away by the Predacon's large tail and over into the cliff that Elita and Ironhide were standing on top of. "Ah scrap," was all Wheeljack could say before the explosive went off and caused the two 'Bots to quickly move away from their position before they fell to the ground along with the rumble, firing at their enemies as they went.

"Damn it! What's it take to bring this thing down," Shinn shouted as he charged the Destiny forward with its sword pulled back and ready to strike. As soon as he was close enough, Shinn swung the massive weapon at the Predacon, but it merely jumped into the air and took flight once again, right into the path of the Impulse's beam saber. Lunamaria's sword was able to hit its mark, but unfortunately it seemed that the laser weapon did not so much as even scratch the armor on the monster; whether it was due to the Dark Energon interfering with their mobile suits' performances or the beast's thick armor no one knew, or even wanted to think about. A minute later, the Predacon let out a feral roar before swiping its claws into the Impulse, sending it crashing to the ground. Luna tried to get her mobile suit to stand up, but found it extremely difficult given how much of a mess the machine was in and the fact that the Predacon had landed on top of her and kept her pinned down beneath its claws.

The team could only watch in horror as the Predacon then tore apart the Impulse with both its claws and razor sharp teeth like it were nothing more than paper, and the minute Shinn heard his girlfriend crying out in pain, he immediately went into SEED Burst mode and armed the Destiny's beam cannon. One powerful shot from the weapon, and the monster that had attacked Lunamaria was blasted off the Impulse and into the side of the cliff that surrounded them. "Luna, are you okay," Shinn asked as he fired a few more rounds from the cannon.

"I think so," Lunamaria replied weakly. "But the Impulse isn't. I'm trying everything here, but the system's been completely shot. Nothing's responding at all."

"Hang on, kid," Crosshairs shouted as he raced down with his pistols armed and blazing on anything that tried to so much as approach the Impulse.

Seeing that Lunamaria would be alright with Crosshairs with her, Shinn brought his focus onto the one who had attacked her, and charged in with his sword ready once again, this time moving slightly faster than before, but just barely. Thankfully, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Athrun, and Wheeljack were quick to provide him some backup, but in the end it made little difference, as the Predacon shook off the combined assault before lashing around with its tail again, and knocking them all off their feet. As soon as the Destiny had fallen to the ground, the Predacon lunged at the red winged mobile suit once more and commenced tearing it apart just as viciously as it had the Impulse.

"Shinn," Athrun shouted as he pushed the Infinite Justice forward with a beam boomerang in one hand, and the other transformed into a sword. After forcing the Predacon back with a blow from the thrown boomerang, he immediately commenced slashing and slicing with the sword as fast as he could under the circumstances so that Bulkhead could pull the Destiny away from the battle.

A minute later, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Springer, and Wheeljack were all next to him, and they all quickly armed their blasters to fire everything they had at the Predacon, despite the fact that their attacks were not likely to be effective even if there was not Dark Energon raining down on them. As he continued to fire the Infinite Justice's arm blasters, Athrun found himself saying, "I really hope Optimus and Kira are having better luck than we are right now."

"You and me both, Athrun," Smokescreen agreed as he ran up to blast the metal monster along with the others before they were forced to take cover once again. "Believe me; you have no idea how much I'm hoping for that right now."

* * *

Athrun and Smokescreen's hopes were rather ill-placed, as Optimus and Kira were struggling against Galvatron and Le Creuset almost as much as the others were against the Predacon. The fact that they too were feeling the negative effects of the Dark Energon was doing nothing to help that fact, as while Optimus and the Strike Freedom were each getting weaker and weaker, Galvatron and Le Creuset's Gundam only seemed to get stronger and stronger. This fact could easily be proven true given how Galvatron seemed to gain a radiating purple glow that showed that the Dark Energon in his systems was resonating with the substance that was currently spewing from the nearby volcano, and much to Kira's shock, Le Creuset's machine was giving off the same glow, even as the face plant seemed to gain a more evil, demonic appearance as opposed to the usual kind, strong appearance that one would find on a Gundam.

"Dark Energon truly is a magnificent thing, isn't it Optimus," Galvatron boasted as he fired his fusion cannon at the last Prime once more, allowing Optimus to roll away so that he could land a powerful uppercut across said Prime's front. "While others grow weaker, my ally and I only become more empowered. I suppose that you find it surprising that the substance could even be on this small, wretched planet, don't you? Well the truth of the matter is that it is not as surprising as you may think."

"What do you know of this," Optimus demanded as he attempted to fire his default blaster at point blank range, only to have the weapon deflected just as it was firing. He quickly made up for this by throwing a fist into Galvatron's face, causing the reborn warlord to stumble back for a moment before Optimus ran up and shoulder jacked the 'Con as hard as he could, sending him over the ledge.

Galvatron was quick to recover from Optimus's assault, and assumed his jet mode so that he could fly up and crash right into Optimus before returning to his robot mode once more. "You see Optimus, the Chaos Bringer, being a force of pure darkness, could not be so easily destroyed, and as such, when Primus believed he had vanquished Unicron, what he did not realize was that in doing so, he caused pockets of the Chaos Bringer's blood to form on five different worlds. Worlds that Primus's very own creation would one day travel to and then colonize. Each of these worlds, not including the one you and I now stand upon, were in fact the very first worlds that the ancients had colonized in their travels across the stars," Galvatron stated as he continued his assault on Optimus, his advantage over the last Prime showing with every blow he threw.

"What worlds do you speak of," Optimus snarled as he blocked a pair of strikes from Galvatron, only to be knocked back by a sudden head butt.

"All in due time, Prime," Galvatron then mocked with a devious smirk. "After all, why reveal so much of what you can learn from a simple glimpse into history."

Kira had to raise an eyebrow in confusion when he heard Galvatron's words to Optimus, but he did not pay it much mind, as the only thing he was concerned about at the moment was that Optimus was in trouble and likely needed his help. Kira was about to bring his Gundam around to help Optimus, but he soon found his path blocked once again by Le Creuset. "What's the matter, Kira," Le Creuset shouted in false concern. "Is your precious Freedom Gundam having trouble? Oh but of course it is! Your machine runs on the pathetic, low-grade caliber of basic energon, whereas my own Advocate Gundam runs on the superior power of Dark Energon, just as the blood of the Chaos Bringer now runs through me and granted me life anew!"

"What," Kira gasped in shock as he activated the Strike Freedom's beam shield in order to block a strike from his opponent's beam saber. "Are you saying that stuff is actually inside of both you and your machine?!"

"Of course it is," Le Creuset boasted. "How else do you think I had survived our last encounter?! A mighty force had smiled upon me in what should have been my final defeat, and granted me new life, with the only price being that I spread mankind's future to the entire universe alongside Galvatron!"

"No, I won't let that happen," Kira shouted as he pushed the Advocate off him and then unleashed a powerful slash with the Strike Freedom's right sword arm. "I defeated you once, and I'll do it again!"

Kira's words would have rang true had it not been for the fact that even in SEED Burst mode, the Strike Freedom was slowing down more and more with every minute that passed, and that seemed to provide Le Creuset with the same advantage over him that Galvatron had over Optimus. Try as the both might, neither of them could fight off the effects of the Dark Energon, and eventually, one would find it surprising that the two had not been defeated and killed already. It truly seemed for a moment that Kira would not be able to stay true to his word, until a sudden barrage rained down on both his and Optimus's opponents.

Looking towards the source, Optimus and Kira immediately spotted the Aerialbots flying to their location, guns blazing on their targets, before they finally transformed and landed next to them both.

"Optimus, Kira, we've got to get you guys out of here," Wing Saber shouted as he continued to fire his blasters at the two madmen.

Kira and Optimus could only nod in agreement with the Aerialbot's words, and the both immediately activated Optimus's jetpack and the Freedom's flight systems so that they could blast away from the scene with the Aerialbots close behind them mere moments later.

* * *

Springer, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and Athrun were soon the only ones left to stand against the Predacon, as the others had to either cover the other Gundam pilots, downed or otherwise, and Grimlock and the Dinobots had gone off to engage Shockwave in battle, a battle which no one wanted to interfere in given how viciously the two sides were going at each other. They did receive a small amount of long-range assistance from Crosshairs, Ironhide, and Dearka on occasion, but they knew full well that they were not likely to last long. They then saw the Predacon preparing to launch another blast of fire at them, and immediately braced themselves for impact, knowing that they did not have enough time to evade the blast, but to their shock, they instead heard what sounded almost like the Predacon screeching out in pain while the impact they were expecting never came at all.

Upon looking up, they were immediately greeted with the sight of both the Nero Blitz disengaging its Variable Arm Units' crystallized state alongside the Akatsuki before both Gundam began sending out covering fire, allowing Ultra Magnus the other Autobots that had remained behind at base, save for Ratchet and Fixit, the Rosso Aegis, and the Saviour to race up to help them all pull back a bit. They were all thankful for the sudden arrival of backup, but they had little time to celebrate when the saw Optimus and the Strike Freedom flying towards them with the former shouting, "All units fall back! Retreat now!"

Not even the Dinobots were complaining in response to those orders, and as soon as Ultra Magnus had transformed, his vehicle mode being that of Optimus's old one, and had secured the damaged Impulse and Destiny, they all immediately high-tailed for the Ground Bridge back to base. Shockwave was about to order a pursuit of the retreating forces when Galvatron suddenly shouted out, "Let them go. They cannot hope to stop the inevitable, especially given that they will soon be chasing nothing more than mere ghosts."

* * *

The sting of defeat hung heavily in the air after the Autobot team had returned to base. While no one had suffered any injuries, they did not feel all that thankful given what had transpired. The Destiny and the Impulse were both destroyed to the point of being beyond repair, the other Gundams had to undergo major overhauls given the effects that the Dark Energon had on their systems, and of course there was also the news that Megatron was now alive once again, reborn as Galvatron along with Rau Le Creuset and the masked madman's Dark Energon powered Gundam. When one took all of those factors into account, it would be surprising that anyone would not feel depressed.

Of course, there was one person that was not as depressed as the others. "We can't give up so easily," Lacus suddenly said, finally breaking the silence that had hung in the air after the team had recounted the events that had transpired. "Whatever Galvatron, Le Creuset, and the Decepticons may be planning, it can be stopped. There's always a way for a peaceful tomorrow to come about, and so long as we never give up trying, that hope will never die."

"Lacus is correct," Optimus then said as he stepped up. "During my engagement with Galvatron, he had told me that there are four other worlds which had been colonized by ancient Cybertronians that have reservoirs of Dark Energon buried beneath their surface. It is quite likely that these worlds may be the next targets for the Decepticons."

"But how do we even find them," Shinn asked. "Even Sentinel never knew about the exact location of the worlds that the ancient Cybertronians had traveled to, and he talked about them all the time like he was a leading expert on them."

"By looking into history," Optimus revealed. "Galvatron may not have realized it, but in his moment of boasting, he revealed a key clue to locating the worlds that these reservoirs are located on. The information is in the oldest records of Cybertronian history, stored in the Iacon Database."

"But sir, with all due respect, what good will it do us to look there," Strongarm asked. "That information was encoded by Alpha Trion himself, cycles ago. There's no way anyone but Alpha Trion could decrypt it."

"Or someone who worked directly under him," Bumblebee then exclaimed, being the first to catch on to what Optimus had in mind.

"Fixit, transfer as much of the ancient Iacon Database records to here at once," Optimus then ordered. "I will attempt to decode the information as quickly as I can."

"Yes sir," Fixit replied as he immediately set to work.

With an idea of what there next actions would be, Cagalli and Audrey both stood up as the former stated, "We should make an official statement. The people have a right to know about what's going on, and we can't try to close off the area around that volcano without some sort of explanation."

"Agreed," Ultra Magnus then said. "But I would advise telling your world of this news in a manner that would not bring about any unnecessary panic."

"Not to worry, Ultra Magnus," Audrey assured the commander. "Just leave everything on that matter to Cagalli and I. We'll take care of that situation."

Everyone then nodded to the two government leaders as they made their way over to Arcee and Blur, allowing the two to transport them to the New Iacon government building so that they could make the announcement and then call for an emergency meeting of the world leaders. As soon as the two had left, Kira turned to Erica Simmons and Banagher before saying, "I know that this may be a lot to ask of you, but we now need you two to work as quickly as possible to complete the work you've been doing at Morgenroete if we're to be able to do anything about what's happened."

"Don't worry, Kira," Erica assured the young admiral. "We'll be working doubly as hard to get them ready, but we will need you to transfer all the machines to Morgenroete and have a few of Z.A.F.T.'s best engineers reassigned to us if we're to make any headway on that."

"That can easily be arranged," Lacus immediately said. "I may not like the idea of hurrying into something like this, but we must be ready for anything, especially given the situation we now face."

"Don't worry Chairwoman Yamato, we'll do everything we can to make sure those machines will be ready and able to end this before anything goes too far," Banagher assured her before he and Erica walked over to Blaster and Ironhide, respectively and allowed the two to transport them through the Ground Bridge and back to Morgenroete while Kira told the other Gundam pilots that their machines would be transferred to Morgenroete for some special work until further notice. Some of the Gundam pilots were quick to protest, but when Kira informed them that the work that would be done to the machines would allow them all a better chance against the 'Cons, all further arguments immediately died, and they immediately allowed Kira to send the machines to Erica and Banagher's work place.

As everyone then proceeded to meet up with their respective Autobot Guardians so that they could return home for the day, Shinn spotted Rey pausing for a moment in his trip towards Springer, seeming as though something was bothering him. "Hey, you okay pal," Shinn asked his friend as he walked up to him.

Rey glanced at his brother-like friend for a second before he replied, "I still have a hard time processing the facts on what it was Rau had done in the past after you and Kira helped me to see the error of my ways, and now, all of a sudden, Rau's alive again. It's almost like discovering that your older brother that you had long thought to be dead is suddenly back from the grave, only to find that he's turned into some kind of monster. I'm just…I can't help wondering if I'll be able to fight him if our paths cross."

Shinn placed a hand on Rey's shoulder, prompting the blonde to turn and see that his friend was giving him a small smile as he said, "I know that's gotta be rough for you Rey, but it's like Kira and I have told you before, you and Rau are two very different people, and if you ever do end up having to face him, I know you'll be able to do the right thing."

Rey stared at Shinn in surprise at how sure the Destiny pilot seemed to be for a minute, until he finally let a smile grace his face and said, "Thanks bro."

"Anytime," Shinn replied, and with that, the two of them each walked towards Bulkhead and Springer so that the two Autobots could transport them home for the night, both hoping that whatever happened following today would be better than what they had just experienced on this recent mission.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well, there you have it. Le Creuset and Galvatron have given our heroes a reason to travel to the other worlds in the Transformers universe, Optimus is working on decoding the coordinates of those worlds, and Erica and Banagher are working on some secret project that involves the Gundams. If you thought that the Predacon dominated the fight a little too much in this chapter, then I feel I should remind you that everyone was suffering from the effects of Dark Energon, and while it would have likely had a negative effect on the Predacon as well, who by the way, in case you haven't figured it out yet from the description I gave last chapter, is in fact Predaking, it would be much less noticeable since Predacons are extremely tough opponents under normal circumstances._**

 ** _Moving on, I really came up with the name for Le Creuset's new machine off the top of my head, and its sort of derived the whole devil's advocate thing, in case that wasn't obvious. And yes, the masked psycho does have Dark Energon running through his body now, so now he's basically even more poisoned now than before, only this type of poison seems to be benefiting him physically instead of harming him even more._**

 ** _Also, that whole bit with the Impulse and the Destiny, I kind of needed that to happen for a very important reason, which will be revealed next chapter. Now with that said, onto the preview!..._**

 ** _Optimus uncovers the first set of coordinates, and requests that Bumblebee gathers together a team to lead to the first world that Galvatron claims to have a Dark Energon pocket. With the Autobots heading off into space, the Gundam pilots immediately request to be included in such a task, as well as defending the world from any further attacks that the Decepticons may send towards their world. In response to this request, Kira and Optimus reveal the results of the secret project that Morgenroete had undertaken, allowing a new power to be born. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 4: Prelude to the First Voyage** ** _. Gundam, be reborn with a new power!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	4. Prelude to the First Voyage

_**AN: Hey everybody, it's lyokoMARVELanime, and we are back for another chapter of Chaos Hunters!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Alright, alright, thank you, thank you all, you're too kind. Now, getting down to business, let's answer some reviews before we get on with the adventure.**_

 _ **First off, in response to "Ice Wolf Fang"'s review from chapter 3, my reasoning behind having Meer change her name to Feldt is kinda a whole thing. See, in my opinion, if Meer had lived, then she would think that the whole identity crisis bit she had was deeply rooted in the fact that she almost forgot who Meer Campbell was, and that identity sort of merged with the fact that as Meer, she was used as nothing more than someone else's puppet, so I think that she would figure that by changing her name, it would allow her to take her first step forward in becoming someone that is completely her own person. Essentially, its part of her road to recovery from that moment in her life.**_

 _ **Also, in reference to the whole Kup thing, sorry, believe me I don't like doing it, but that's just they way things have ended up, so he's not going to be showing up again. Don't get me wrong, I did really like the character, but he's just not going to have much of a place in this story.**_

 _ **One last thing, for those of you who are thinking that this story is basically just another version of the Transformers: Cybertron series, I'm sorry that I've given that bad impression, but I am honestly trying to not make it like that. As I had previously stated in an authors note from Destiny Sentinels, this story is going to be split into 3 major arcs, and this is only the beginning of the first of those three arcs, so don't expect the entire story to revolve around this whole theme that's currently going right now.**_

 ** _And with that, I am done ranting, so let's get on to the story. Roll out!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Prelude to the First Voyage**

A few weeks had passed since the Decepticons' return to Earth and the mission in which the Autobots and Gundam pilots had learned of Galvatron and Le Creuset's return from the dead as well as their plans, and in all that time, there was still no word from Optimus on any significant progress in decoding the coordinates of one of the other Transformer worlds from the Iacon Database. It was not all that nerve racking at first to be perfectly honest, as everyone had something to occupy their time with in one way or another.

This more than likely held the most true for Cagalli, Audrey, and Lacus as the co-leaders of the Sol Federation and the Chairwoman of the PLANTs all found themselves doing everything they could to make sure that both Earth and the PLANTs were ready for anything that the 'Cons would try if and when they came back to the homeworld of humanity, while they also made sure that no one began a sudden massive panic at the same time. The initial reaction to Cagalli and Audrey's announcement about the Decepticons' return and of the mission that had taken place was honestly much better than expected, as the two were able to inform the public of the danger they now faced while also assuring the people that the Autobots and their allies were already doing everything they could to prepare for the coming storm. After the official announcement was made, it came as no shock to everyone that the area around the volcano that was still spewing Dark Energon was immediately sealed off more to keep the people of Earth away than to secure it from the Decepticons, as the Autobots were certain that if Galvatron's forces wanted to come back to that location, there would be little they could do to stop them considering how the Dark Energon would affect them if they got even close to the substance.

While those in government positions certainly had their hands full for quite some time, the Gundam pilots and former or current soldiers found themselves much more restless as they found that the only things they could do at the moment to distract themselves was mandatory training and taking a few runs in the mobile suit simulators. This irritated the mobile suit and Gundam pilots more than anyone, as whenever they were in a situation like this, they would normally be doing some sort of work on their machine to help take their mind off of things, but that was not something they could do at the moment since many of them had other responsibilities to deal with, and also due to the fact that none of them currently had access to the Gundams at all.

Ever since Kira had spoken with Erica and Banagher and then transferred all the elite mobile suits to Morgenroete for some sort of special work, the pilots of the machines were not allowed any access to so much as the information on the status of their machines, and whenever they asked about the Gundams, the only response they would get would be Kira simply saying that the information was classified until the work on the machines was finished. Of course, as everyone knows, that sort of stone-walling could only push someone so far before they finally lost their cool completely.

With that in mind, it really was no surprise to anyone that Yzak was the one to first lose his cool and all of his patience on the matter, as evidenced by the fact that when he finally did, he stormed into Kira's office with Dearka and Nicol right behind him, hoping that they would be able to keep their friend from doing something too rash and stupid. "When the hell are you going to tell us when we're going after the 'Cons," Yzak shouted as soon as he was in front of Kira's desk, causing the admiral to look up from one of the recent reports he was reviewing.

Kira's gaze wandered over to Nicol and Dearka, but the two only shrugged in response to show that they were actually siding with Yzak on this, so he ended up simply sighing before he responded, "I get that you're frustrated Yzak, but right now isn't the best time for us to think about going after them."

"Say what?!"

"Just think for a minute," Kira told Yzak as he set down the report he was reviewing so that he could give his full attention to his fellow members of Z.A.F.T. "We have no idea where Galvatron's forces are even hiding, and even if we did what could we honestly hope to do against them without knowing the full details of their exact strengths?"

"Well it's pretty obvious that they've got all the 'Cons that fought against us in the first Bloody Valentine War, and they've also got some Eradicons that should be dead and that massive Predacon," Dearka stated as though he were pointing out an obvious fact. "I'd say that paints an accurate picture."

"Not quite," Kira immediately contradicted. "If Galvatron was able to convert some of the Eradicons or even bring them back from the dead in that way, then who's to say he hasn't done that for other fallen warriors. Then there's the fact that Le Creuset is also back from the dead with a new Gundam that's powered by Dark Energon. Do you really think that there's a chance that Le Creuset is the only one like that?"

The three had to concede that Kira did make a strong point. If the Decepticons had indeed found a way to bring the dead back to life in the way that Galvatron, Le Creuset, and so many others of their forces had been, then it was not all that unlikely that there were not others as well. "Well at least there's only the one Predacon, right," Nicol then pointed out, hoping that there was a silver lining in that.

"One Predacon that we know of," Kira immediately rebuffed. "I talked with Optimus and Grimlock about that, and they both agree that Shockwave was most likely the one who created that Predacon using some of the fossilized remains that were stolen from _Alcamor_. Keep in mind that a lot of Predacon fossils were stored there and they were all taken, so who's to say that they'll stop at just one?"

"If you're able to create a powerful weapon that can easily stop your enemies, then you shouldn't think that having only one will be enough to make you invincible," Yzak then suddenly said softly. "Is that the line of thinking that you're suspecting them to have or something?"

"Exactly," Kira confirmed. "Believe me, I'd like to go off and storm the 'Cons' base as much as you guys, but without knowing where it is, or if we can even get to it, there's no chance of doing that. Plus, even if we did know all of that, what can we really do to help the Autobots right now? Without our machines, we don't stand a chance against the 'Cons."

"As I recall you, Shinn, and a lot of others have fought against Transformers without your machines in the past and held your own pretty well," Dearka pointed out.

"We had at least one Autobot backing us up at those times, and it was usually just one or two enemy Transformers," Kira rebuffed once again. "Maybe we could take on one or two of those guys with just an Energon Blaster Handgun, but an entire army is another story entirely."

The three members of the Joule Team found that Kira's argument held too great a deal of truth to dispute, so they immediately dropped that topic, but there were still some things that they needed to discuss. "Well what about finding these Cybertronian Colony worlds? Do we really need to decode the coordinates from that old database," Yzak asked. "I mean, Optimus has been working for weeks on trying to decode so much as one set of coordinates, and yet we still haven't got a damn thing. Why can't we just look it up in something else in Cybertron's library?"

"Don't you think we would if we could," Kira demanded as he stood up, shocking Yzak and the other two into silence by his sudden outburst. Kira then took a moment to calm down as he turned to look out his window at the city within the PLANT colony before he finally said, "If we're to stand any chance of finding that information, then we can't take any chances. Any information on the position of those worlds is nothing more than estimates and guesses that were made based on ancient star maps that were made by the Ancient Cybertronians, and if we really want to stop them, then we can't just go off of guess work. That data that Optimus is trying to decode is our best hope of making absolutely sure we reach those worlds before the Decepticons do."

The Joule Team leaders took a moment to allow that information to sink in as Kira finished his explanation on the matter, hoping that keeping quiet for a minute would keep Kira from losing his temper again when Yzak brought up his next topic of discussion, until Yzak finally opened his mouth, only for Kira to cut him off by saying, "And before you ask about the Gundams, I'm sorry, but like I said before, its classified information until further notice. That means you'll find out when it's done."

It was not the answer the three were looking for, but they did hope to learn at least one thing about the work being done on their machines. "Is it going to help us against the 'Cons and their new pet," Dearka finally asked. "Cause I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather not end up in the same state as Shinn and Luna, or worse."

Kira finally turned to face them once more, staring at them as though he were contemplating his answer before he finally said, "I don't know about how helpful it'll be against the Predacon, but I can guarantee that it'll allow us to fight on an even more even basis with Transformers in general than ever before."

The three were about to ask if Kira could explain what that meant any better for them, when the admiral's phone suddenly rang, leading Kira to rush over to it and answer. He listened to the person on the other line for a few minutes, and as he did, the three pilots saw Kira's face go from neutral, to shocked, and finally to excited as he hung up saying that they would be right over. "What was that about," Nicol asked.

"Call Heine, Shinn, and the others," Kira simply replied, his grin not leaving his face once as he ran around his desk for the door. "We need to get to the New Iacon Base now."

The three just shrugged to each other before doing as the admiral had asked while he called up his sister and Athrun to let them know of the news, and soon enough, Kira, Dearka, Nicol, and Yzak were outside the building and climbing into Bumblebee, Drift, Jazz, and Hound's vehicle modes so that the Autobots could whisk them off to the base. Shortly after doing that, Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey, Heine, and Shiho were boarding Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Springer, Ratchet, and Blaster to do the same, as Arcee and Smokescreen picked up Cagalli, Audrey, and Athrun, while Ironhide collected Erica Simmons and Banagher. Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus rounded out the gathering by collecting the La Flagas and Natarle, and Waltfeld and Aisha respectively with Elita picking up Miriallia, Sai, Feldt, and Lacus shortly after that. The whole time that the teams were gathering, everyone could tell that whatever was going on, it was likely going to be very big news.

* * *

"Are you serious," Shinn exclaimed shortly after the groups had all arrived in the New Iacon Base. "You've finally found the coordinates for the Cybertron Colony Worlds?!"

"That is not entirely accurate," Optimus clarified, trying to make sure that everyone understood him correctly after what he had previously said to elicit Shinn's reaction. "I was able to decode the coordinates for one of the worlds that we were seeking, but at the moment, that is the only world we have located."

"At least it's better than nothing," Heine pointed out, getting a nod of agreement from everyone. "Which world is it, if you don't mind my asking?"

"It is one of the earliest of all the first Cybertronian Colony worlds, Velocitron," Optimus replied.

"Hey, I've heard about that place," Smokescreen exclaimed. "It's also known as the Speed Planet since most of the inhabitants were known to have a high-speed, ground based alt mode, and they normally spent all their time racing, right to the point where a majority of the planet was composed of massive race tracks."

"That is correct," Optimus stated. "While we may not know the exact location of all the worlds, we cannot wait until we know of all their whereabouts before we move to secure the planet from Galvatron and his forces."

"Then I suppose there is only one solution," Audrey stated. "We should send an advance team to Velocitron so that they may at least attempt to warn any inhabitants of the world and act as a defense force for that world."

"Sir, we can't seriously consider doing that," Strongarm protested to Optimus. "Autobot regulations clearly state that when on an alien world, unless prior contact has been made, no Autobots should attempt to reveal themselves to locals of that world."

"This is not a typical situation, Strongarm," Bumblebee immediately pointed out. "This is a major threat to the entire universe, so we won't always be able to do things by the book. Besides, it may have been a few years since we last had contact with the planet, but Velocitron is still a world that was colonized by Cybertronians."

"The commander is correct in his judgment," Ultra Magnus agreed. "I believe that we should do as Lady Mineva suggests."

"Agreed," Optimus stated. "But we should still keep the team as small as possible so that Earth and Cybertron are not left unprotected. Bumblebee, I'm placing you in command of the team to head for Velocitron."

Bumblebee immediately nodded in acceptance of his new assignment before turning to Ultra Magnus and stating that he would be leaving Optimus's second in command in charge of the Earth Division while he was gone. Before the scout could start selecting members for his team though, Cagalli suddenly stated, "You should let some of us go as well. It would help with your case if you have someone from Earth speaking on our behalf since our planet was the first place that the 'Cons had struck."

"Normally I would agree with you, little sister," Arcee stated. "But in case you haven't noticed, this isn't some trip to the PLANTs. They'll be going to a whole other world in another part of the galaxy, and you guys still don't have your machines ready. You won't be as much help as you may think you would be, and I'm sure that Bumblebee's team would rather not have to worry about you all so much."

"Actually," Erica suddenly said with a smirk on her face. "They'll be able to take care of themselves better than you think."

Everyone raised an eyebrow in confusion to the chief of Morgenroete, except for Kira who merely smirked knowingly at her comment. Eventually, Lacus caught on to what Erica was saying and asked, "Are you saying that…they're finally ready."

"Not quite all of them, but a good number of them are, yes," Erica replied, her smile never once leaving her face.

"What're you guys talking about," Shinn asked.

Erica merely looked to Fixit and requested that he open a Ground Bridge to Morgenroete's underground facility before she finally faced the gathered individuals and stated, "If you would all please follow me, you'll see what I mean soon enough."

Everyone found they could do nothing more than shrug to one and other before doing as Erica Simmons had asked them to do the minute the Ground Bridge was opened, each continuously wondering just what was going to be waiting for them on the other side of the Ground Bridge.

* * *

After arriving at Morgenroete, Erica had immediately led the group into a part of the underground facility that seemed to be even deeper down than the area where Kira had previously worked when the _Archangel_ and _Omega II_ had stopped in Orb during the First Bloody Valentine War. Though they were not really walking for all that long, some of the group eventually began to feel as though they had been walking for hours, or as if they had walked all the way from Orb into another country. When they finally reached their destination, Erica finally spoke up and said, "Even before Galvatron and the 'Cons made their comeback, we'd been working on finishing up everything on two of these machines, but with what had happened, we needed to start putting in overtime just to get one of them ready to roll. Now that we know where to go first on our tour of the galaxy, I figured that we should at least roll out what's already been finished."

A minute after she said that, Erica flipped the lights on, and everyone had to shield their eyes for a minute so that they could adjust to the light before they finally saw what Erica had brought them down there for. Standing tall and proud before them was the Strike Freedom, Infinite Justice, Verde Buster, Blu Duel, Nero Blitz, and four new machines that looked very familiar. The first of the four machines was clearly the Akatsuki, as was evident by the fact that it still retained its shinning, gold paint job, but the machine now wore a backpack that seemed to combine both the attributes of the one used in the atmosphere and the one used in space, while its rifle was now no longer present. The most noticeable difference between the original Akatsuki and this new version was that the new one held shining, diamond highlights on the joints, hands, and many other areas in a similar manner to the Strike Freedom's gold highlights.

Moving on from there to one of the new machines, everyone could instantly see there was a strong resemblance to the Destiny in the new machine, but it also seemed to possess armaments from both Shinn's Destiny Gundam and the Arch Destiny that they had fought against in the last war. The most notable being the beam sword and what looked like the Ragnarok Cannon being mounted in their respective positions, while two Anti-Ship swords were also mounted on its back. Standing next to the new model of the Destiny was a machine that held a strong resemblance to the Impulse Gundam, but it was much more sleek in design, while the backpack seemed to hold armaments from each of the original Impulse's silhouette packs, namely the beam cannons, the anti-ship swords, and the basic default backpack. The final machine seemed to be a lot like the Legend, yet also seemed like a much more calm, and friendly machine. The large disc on its back was now much smaller to the point where it was barely even noticeable from the front, and the DRAGOONs in the backpack also seemed like they were folded up into the pack instead of extending out like they did originally.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Erica announced. "Allow me to introduce, or in some cases reintroduce, the Gundams of the CX series." She then gestured to each Gundam as she introduced each of them. "I'm sure you're all familiar with ZGMF-CX20A Strike Freedom and ZGMF-CX19A Infinite Justice, but now, I'd like to introduce the now CX203AP Verde Buster, CX1022 Blu Duel, and CX207SR Nero Blitz Gundams. Finally, there are the newest machines: ORB-CX01 Diamond Akatsuki Gundam, ZGMF-CX42S Grand Destiny Gundam, ZGMF-CX56S/Σ Pure Impulse Gundam, and ZGMF-CX777 Liberator Gundam."

"Miss Erica," Shinn then asked, his voice trembling as much as he was at the sight of the three new machines that looked so much like his, Lunamaria's, and Rey's. "Are those last three…?"

"Yep, the Grand Destiny, Pure Impulse, and Liberator are yours, Luna's, and Rey's new machines," Erica confirmed.

Everyone could hardly believe their eyes and ears, but the facts were standing right before them clear as day. The three former pilots of the _Minerva_ had just gained new machines and the most of the other pilots were all about to get their Gundams back. There was one thing that stood out to all of them though. "What's with the "C" in each of their designations," Mu finally asked, voicing the question for everyone.

"It's representative of the fact that each of these machines are now truly capable of fighting on equal terms with a Cybertronian," Erica explained. "I'm sure you all remember that the Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice possess capabilities similar to that of the Autobots, correct?" At the collective nods in confirmation, Erica continued on to say, "Well, the main reason for that is because the two machines have a new feature installed in them known as an artificial T-Cog."

"You mean these things have that same bio-mechanism that allows the Transformers to scan vehicles and alter their forms," Sai asked, remembering the incident involving Blue Cosmos stealing Bumblebee's T-Cog all too well when he heard that.

"Essentially, yes," Erica replied. "However, they're not taken from other Transformers, if that's what you're thinking. They were created using data that Ratchet had provided for us and the engineers that helped hide the _Eternal_ and develop the DOMs, Strike Freedom, and Infinite Justice, but the problem was that we weren't able to get them working to a point where the artificial copies were able to do anything more than provide the machines with weapons like their blasters and swords. Not until now that is."

"What are you saying," Athrun asked.

"I'm saying that these Gundams are the very first Transformer Gundams," Erica revealed at last. "Meaning that they are able to scan and transform into a vehicle much like the Autobots are able to."

"But isn't that just the same as a mobile suit that converts to a mobile armor," Nicol asked in confusion.

"No," Erica immediately replied. "You see mobile suits that convert into mobile armors, like the Rosso Aegis or the Saviour are built like that right from the start, but these new Transformer Gundams do not have a set vehicle mode until they have scanned a vehicle to use like the Autobots or any other Transformer. They are, in many senses, man-made Transformers. All these need now is a vehicle mode."

"Wait, you mean you didn't scan anything for them yet," Lunamaria asked.

Erica just shook her head as she pulled down a lever that caused one of the walls to rise up and reveal a collection of different vehicles on the other side of it. "We thought that it would be better if you all chose a vehicle mode for your Gundams yourselves. So, who wants to try it first?"

At that point, every one of the pilots felt a sudden wave of nervousness hit them for some odd reason. There was just something about being the first to pilot a Gundam that worked like an artificial Transformer that seemed to unnerve them, and the idea of choosing a vehicle mode for the machine was something that was both exciting yet also extremely nerve racking. For a while it seemed as though none of them were likely to step up and try out the system that was indicated first without someone being forced to, until finally, Kira stepped forward, and began to climb into the Strike Freedom.

Cagalli had called out to her brother in worry when she saw him ascending to the Strike Freedom's cockpit, but by the time she had, Kira was already halfway up to the cockpit's entrance. A minute later, Kira was securely seated inside of his faithful mobile suit with all of its systems activated, including the Phase Shift armor, and he then guided the Strike Freedom over to the collection of vehicles until he finally spotted one that he thought would work well for the Gundam. Remembering the one control that Lacus had told him not to tamper with when he first received the mobile suit, Kira's hand immediately went for the covered switch, and then flipped the cover up before activating the switch as soon as the vehicle was targeted.

The minute Kira had hit the control everyone could see the Strike Freedom's yellow eyes glow for a few seconds before it finally emitted a gold colored scanning beam that was very similar to the one that they had now seen the other Transformers use when scanning vehicles which swept over the vehicle that Kira had selected. Not a minute after the scan had finished its sweep, Kira triggered another necessary control, and everyone immediately gasped in shock when they saw the Strike Freedom Gundam begin to shift and change in shape until it took on the appearance of a Western Star 4900 Phantom Custom semi-trailer truck with a black cab, white back, gold highlights, and blue extensions on the back of the cab that were once the wings.

"Kira, are you okay in there," Athrun called out.

A minute later, the window on the driver's side of the truck rolled down to reveal a grinning Kira seated in a highly sophisticated cockpit that one would not have expected inside a typical truck as he said, "I'm better than okay; I'm fantastic! The new Strike Freedom is definitely better than ever before!"

That declaration was all any of the other pilots needed to immediately race towards their own Gundams so that they could also scan a vehicle for their machines. The minute they were all situated in their cockpits and had activated their machines, Optimus had approached Kira, who had just brought the Strike Freedom back into its Gundam mode and said, "Kira, whenever you are ready, give your team the order."

"My team," Kira asked in uncertain surprise.

Optimus only smiled as he told the young man, "I cannot think of anyone better suited to lead this new team of pilots than you old friend."

Kira only stared at Optimus for a minute before he returned the smile with one of his own and nodded in acceptance of the role that Optimus had now bestowed upon him. He then brought his attention forward to the other Gundams and commanded, "Transformer Gundam pilots, scan and transform!"

That was all the prompting that the other pilots needed, as they immediately moved their machines forward to scan a vehicle for their Gundams with a scanning beam that matched the color of their Gundam's eyes. A minute later, the Infinite Justice had transformed into a crimson and dark red F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, much like the one that the late Dreadwing had turned into, the Akatsuki had become a gold and diamond seaplane, the Blu Duel had become an Oshkosh Defense Medium Tactical Vehicle like Hound's vehicle mode except in the mobile suit's colors, the Verde Buster had become an M1117 Armored Security Vehicle that had the mobile suit's shoulder cannons mounted on the roof, also in the Verde Buster's colors, and the Nero Blitz had taken the form of a black SUV with red highlights.

Shortly after the five had finished, the Pure Impulse, which revealed itself to possess a violet-red and dark blue color scheme when its Phase Shift Armor was activated, had transformed into a large fighter jet that seemed to be comprised of a few smaller jets given that the new machine still possessed the old Impulse's transformation capabilities, while the Grand Destiny was revealed to have a black torso, arms, and hands while the wings were red at the end with black at the top and gold highlights, essentially mixing the two color schemes of the Arch Destiny and the original Destiny, and the machine had taken on the form of a large bomber plane. Finally, Rey's new Liberator Gundam was revealed to have a silver and white color scheme instead of the Legend's black and dark blue, and he elected to give his new Transformer Gundam the form of a tank for his machine's alt mode.

"Whoa, looking good you guys," Hound whistled, clearly impressed.

"Yeah, no kidding. The 'Cons won't know what hit 'em when they see you guys coming," Jazz agreed.

"Excuse me, Miss Erica," Heine asked, cutting into the celebrations as the pilots of the transformed Gundams all seemed to jump with joy in their seats. "But I was wondering if the other Gundams, like my Saviour, were going to be getting these upgrades as well."

"Well yes," Erica replied. "But unfortunately, we still haven't finished work on the artificial T-Cogs for the Saviour, the Rosso Aegis, the Star Force Strike, and Commander Waltfeld's Gaia, but that's partly because we've found it more difficult to integrate the mechanism into a mobile suit that can change into a mobile armor."

"So what're the chances of getting these artificial T-Cogs into all mobile suits," Waltfeld then asked.

"Not very likely at all," Banagher then stated. "Some the materials needed to make these things are very rare at best, and programming a single artificial T-Cog to work the way its intended to takes quite a bit of time. That's why we've only installed the ones we do have into elite machines like the Gundams."

"It'll have to do for now," Bumblebee stated as he switched into his command mode, getting everyone's attention at once. "Alright; Arcee, Jazz, Smokescreen, and Springer, you're with me on the Velocitron mission. Kira, who do you plan on loaning to us?"

"Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol," Kira immediately replied. "They're the only ones who's machines have an alt mode that is both ground based and more likely to fit in on a world like this 'Speed Planet' as you guys have called it." The ultimate Coordinator then turned to the pilot of the Blu Duel as he then added, "Yzak, I'll want you to coordinate with Bumblebee as the leader of our pilots for the mission."

"Wait, seriously," Yzak exclaimed. "No offense to your judgment or anything Kira, but in case you haven't noticed, Bumblebee and I don't exactly have matching command styles."

"Even so, you're the senior-most member of the pilots we'll be sending out there," Kira reasoned. "Besides, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt. It's not like you haven't had to lead a mission alongside Bumblebee before."

Yzak only smirked in reply after a minute before he saluted and half-jokingly said, "Yes sir, Admiral Yamato."

Kira merely muttered something about how he would never get used to being referred to by that title in response as Bumblebee stepped forward and stated, "Alright everyone, take some time to head for your homes and pack up anything that you might need for this mission. We'll meet at New Iacon's Mass Accelerator in about two hours before we head out."

Everyone immediately nodded in agreement, and after they had powered down the Gundams and received reassurances from Erica and Banagher that the machines going with Bumblebee's team would be transferred to the ship they would be using, they all departed to make their final preparations for the mission out into space, now more than eager for the adventure that they were about to face.

* * *

Some time after the Transformer Gundams had finally been unveiled to the heroes of Cybertron and Earth on the planet, Chaar, Starscream and Quicksilver had made their way to Shockwave's lab where they found Galvatron and Le Creuset getting an update from the one-optic scientist on his progress with _Project: Predacon_. "Lord Galvatron," Starscream reported. "Soundwave has just reported that an Autobot ship has left Earth via a Space Bridge, and it seems to be headed for one of the worlds that holds a Dark Energon pocket. Shall we intercept?"

"No," Galvatron replied. "It will not be necessary."

"I…I beg your pardon," Starscream asked.

"I said it will _not_ be necessary," Galvatron hissed to the Seeker.

"But…I was under the impression that we needed to secure the pockets in order to…" Anything more that Starscream had to say on the subject was immediately cut off when Galvatron slammed a backhand across the Seeker's face.

"You assume _nothing_ ," Galvatron roared. "Your only job is to carry out my orders like an obedient underling! Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes! Of course Master," Starscream stuttered in fear, snarling on the inside every minute he did.

"My Lord," Shockwave suddenly said. "Forgive me for asking, but I must admit that I too fail to see the logic in not intercepting the Autobots before they reach their destination. Would it not be logical to ensure that they are not able to prevent us from securing another Dark Energon pocket?"

Galvatron merely chuckled in response before saying, "I understand your skepticism old friend, but rest assured, even if the Autobots reach the target before us, it will not matter, for in the end, they will burn with the rest of the galaxy."

"Galvatron is correct my friends," Le Creuset then stated, speaking up at last. "The Autobots and their allies will not have gone to that world in full force. They will likely have sent a smaller advance team ahead to secure something for them on the ground. Such a team would be far too little of a challenge for our might, so why bother taking such hasty actions right away when we have more pressing matters to deal with?"

Shockwave seemed to contemplate both his leader's and the human's arguments for a moment before he finally replied, "Your arguments are rather compelling. I suppose it would merely be logical for me to trust in your judgment."

"Good," Galvatron stated, coolly. "Now, about the work on _Project: Predacon_?"

Shockwave tapped a control on his computer before an image of many different Predacons appeared on a holographic monitor as the scientist explained, "I have compiled all the necessary data for the cloning process and it is now merely a matter of time before the specimens begin to take form."

Starscream snarled in disgust, as he honestly did not understand why they would need such beasts to assist them. It had little to do with the many encounters he had already had with the one Predacon that was currently active, really it did not matter to him how many times the beast had attacked him and tried to tear him apart as he tried to tame and control the monster…okay so it did have a lot to do with it, but in all honesty, the Seeker truly did not see the value in having so much as one mindless soldier like the lone Predacon that Shockwave had already created. He did not voice this concern himself though, due to the fact that he was certain Galvatron would not be pleased to hear him questioning his decisions again so soon.

Quicksilver on the other hand, did make the bold decision to ask such questions as he said, "Forgive me, Lord Galvatron, but we can barely control one of these beasts, as it has brutally attacked many of the crew when they so much as try to approach it on multiple occasions, despite the best efforts of myself and my master to tame it. Is it really wise to create more of these monsters when we can barely even control the one we already have?"

"Yes," Galvatron stated. "It is indeed as wise as it is necessary. The Predacons possess a mite that has not been seen in many millennia, a fact that you should well remember after seeing how our first Predacon performed in the battle on Earth, and that mite is something that shall be necessary if we are to succeed in our goals."

Quicksilver and Starscream both felt all other arguments die in their throats upon hearing that, and elected to simply excuse themselves, making sure to take the long way around back to their quarters so that they would not run into the Predacon, all the while, the master of the two continued stewing in anger. "Retched abomination," Starscream seethed. "Always with the cryptic orders, and the abuse, and relying on such mindless beasts…and…and…"

"Master, why not just simply end him now," Quicksilver finally asked, cutting Starscream off mid-rant. "Use the Requiem Blaster and end it in one fell swoop?"

"Ah my foolish apprentice, you still have much to learn," Starscream then remarked, finally calming himself down as he did. "If we were to do that now, we would turn all the Decepticons against us, and if we were to fail, Galvatron would have our helms. We must make certain that the moment we strike is the most opportune and unexpected, otherwise, none of our efforts to put up with his reign will pay off."

"I understand," Quicksilver nodded before his expression turned into one of slight disgust. "Still, it is hard to do that while ensuring that _beast_ does not rip me limb from limb."

Starscream's face immediately became one to match Quicksilver's as he nodded in agreement before they continued on their way to their respective quarters. As they went though, neither one of them, nor anyone else in the Decepticon base, could have suspected that at that very moment, the Predacon was actually looking through the database with a great interest that far exceeded that of a mindless beast.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well there you have it. I hope I made it clear enough that the Transformer Gundams are completely different from the mobile suits that can change into a mobile armor, but if I didn't, I'm sorry to say that I can't put it much more simpler than I already did. Now, in case any of you did not get a good idea of some of the vehicle modes for the Gundams, here's how it currently stands, as simple as I can put it:_**

 ** _Strike Freedom: Age of Extinction Optimus's final vehicle mode_**

 ** _Infinite Justice: Dreadwing's vehicle mode. Like I would make Athrun go for anything else considering how close he and Dreadwing were._**

 ** _Diamond Akatsuki: Seaplane, as I stated._**

 ** _Blu Duel: Hound's vehicle mode in Age of Extinction._**

 ** _Verde Buster: Cybertron Defense Team Hot Shot's vehicle mode, from Transformers Cybertron_**

 ** _Nero Blitz: a fancy SUV_**

 ** _Liberator: Transformer Armada Megatron's vehicle mode._**

 ** _And the other two are basically just big jets. Speaking of which, in the case of the Pure Impulse, I wanted to try and get this across as best I could, but in case I didn't, its basically the Impulse version of the Perfect Strike, and I like to think I gave it colors that you would find suitable for Lunamaria since she is the main pilot of the thing. The Grand Destiny is actually what I would like to think is what happens when you take the best features of the Arch Destiny and the original Destiny, and mesh them together, so in essence, all you guys who were upset about me not giving Shinn the Arch Destiny in Destiny Sentinels, think of this as my way of giving Shinn the Arch Destiny. Also, Rey's new Gundam's color scheme, basically its similar to the color scheme his Zaku Phantom had with a Gundam touch added to it. Now with that all out of the way, onto the preview!..._**

 ** _Bumblebee and Yzak's teams arrive safely on Velocitron, and they are immediately faced with a sudden need to adapt to the planet's customs when they encounter the speed demon, female leader of the world. Challenges will follow, and deals will come about, leading the team to a reunion that none of them were expecting. What sort of problems does this racer's paradise hold, and what sort of obstacles will the heroes face before they are able to appropriately deal with the problem? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 5: Into the Fast Lane** ** _. Hurry to cross that finish line first Autobots and Gundam!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	5. Into the Fast Lane

_**AN: Hey guys, and welcome to the chapter that introduces the first Transformer world that our heroes will be visiting! Quite exciting to see how this particular world will be depicted in this story, isn't it?**_

 ** _Smokescreen: Man, I couldn't wait to get into the action for some of the scenes on Velocitron!_**

 ** _Mu: Easy for you to say. Most of us pilots and human characters didn't even get to do anything. The only ones of us who are even doing a little bit of good on that planet are Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol, while the rest of us are twiddling our thumbs on Earth and doing stuff like celebrating..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits the control]_**

 ** _Mu: Whoops. [Gets leg caught in a web and then hauled up onto the wall where Spider-Man finishes webbing him up]_**

 ** _AN: Thanks for that, Spidey._**

 ** _Spider-Man: Anytime. [Swings away and back to his own universe]_**

 ** _AN: Sorry Mu. I know that what you were going to give away is something that happens next chapter and all, but I don't want to give anything about that away until the preview._**

 ** _Mu: [muffles something through the webbing on his mouth]_**

 ** _AN: Anyways, in answer to a guest review about Yzak and Dearka's Gundams, the pilots in Stargazer, at least in this continuity, did not really exist, or rather they might have but since I knew absolutely nothing about them, they just got edited out, and if you'll look back to Destiny Sentinels, you'll see that Yzak and Dearka have been the pilots of Blu Duel and Verde Buster in this continuity for some time now, hence the reason why the Strike Noir was never around._**

 ** _Cagalli: What about the request to give some details on the new Gundams' specs?_**

 ** _AN: Well, I can't really go into full details on that at this time, but I will try to give a little Teletran I Intel Report on that later on in another chapter. Is there anything else that we need to cover?_**

 ** _Luna: No, I think that's it._**

 ** _AN: Alright, then let's roll out!_**

 ** _As I have stated before, new Transformers that are officially appearing or getting mentioned for the first time in this story series will have their names in bold._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Into the Fast Lane**

If one were to ask the most ignorant of people what the difference between the Mass Driver and a Mass Accelerator were, they would most likely be told that the only difference was that the name had been changed and that the latter was bigger. In truth, the Mass Accelerator was indeed bigger than the Mass Driver, mostly because it was designed to be used by both Earth and Cybertronian vessels, and unlike the Mass Driver, the Mass Accelerator did not need an extensively long track like the Driver did. That is not to say that there is no track at all, but it is just not as long as the Driver's tracks would be. The Mass Accelerator was originally one of a kind, as the only one that existed was the one in New Iacon City, but after it became clear that the need for the new space launch system was needed in other countries, the transformation of other Mass Drivers to Mass Accelerators was quick to get underway. Even so, the Mass Accelerator of New Iacon was the most used one, as many found that despite how long it had been around, it was also the most reliable.

It was through the use of this new space launch system that the ship carrying the Velocitron team was sent into space just before it vanished into a Space Bridge portal. Everyone aboard the vessel that had been named _Ogygia_ after the island from the Earth book, _Odyssey_ , was naturally quite nervous about whether or not they would safely reach their destination, but after a while, they found themselves exiting the blue vortex of the Space Bridge just above a brownish-gold planet that seemed to be highlighted by faint lines that just barely stood out from the planet's color from orbit. After looking into the database for an image of the planet that the Autobots had retrieved during a mission into the Sea of Rust during the final days of the war on Cybertron, Springer looked up to the acting ship commander and stated, "This is the place, Bee."

"Alright then," Dearka exclaimed happily from where he was sitting on the bridge. "Let's get down there already and greet the people."

"Hold up, Dearka," Bumblebee immediately cautioned. "Strongarm may have been wrong in her assumption that we should avoid making contact with the locals, but we don't want to just fly down there like we own the place and give them reason to be afraid of us. Don't forget that it's been eons since a Cybertronian ship came out to this planet. We should land in a more remote location and then proceed to the nearest city from there."

"That makes sense," Yzak agreed. "We'll be able to avoid any unnecessary attention until we meet with whoever's in charge, and we'll avoid making them think that we're invaders that want to take over or something."

Everyone nodded in agreement with the logic behind this plan, and as soon as Nicol and Springer had located a location to land that seemed to be far enough out of the way, Arcee and Smokescreen brought the ship down for a smooth landing. Once on the planet's surface, the three pilots were quick to board their Gundams and then join the other Autobots in disembarking from the ship. The main reason for this was because none of them were sure how the Velocitronians would react to seeing the three humans, so they decided that it would be best if they first approached using the mobile suits, given how the three machines allowed them to be Transformers in their own way. After leaving the ship and going a short ways across the planet, the entire team was greeted with the sight of large roadways and race tracks that seemed to go in all sorts of directions that some would likely only find in the toy race tracks that kids would play with. "What's the point of all these roads being so massive and elaborate," Yzak finally asked from his seat inside the Blu Duel. "I mean, it's like the place is full of roads that twist and turn for no reason. What kind of people would design roads like that?"

"Fast people," Smokescreen replied excitedly. "Giant ramps and hairpin turns, this whole place is built for racing! It's like a racer's paradise!"

"And I'll be you want to race in that paradise, don't you, kid," Arcee asked with a knowing smirk.

"Yeah," Smokescreen admitted with a dazed sigh. When he realized that he had said that, he immediately shook himself out of his daydream of doing as such and quickly stated, "I mean, no, of course not!"

"Relax kid," Jazz told the young Autobot as he placed a hand on Smokescreen's shoulder. "You're not the only high-speed Autobot here, ya know. Just try to keep your mind on the mission for now, and in the meantime, settle for just racing us."

Smokescreen smiled to Jazz in thanks for that before Bumblebee brought everyone's attention to the task at hand when he said, "Alright guys, our next step is to locate the leader of Velocitron or someone who knows a lot about the planet. Hopefully, one those types of people will know something about where the Dark Energon pocket is, and while we're meeting with the planet's leader, we'll also be able to warn them about Galvatron and the Decepticons."

"And the Predacon," Nicol added in, just as a quick reminder.

Bumblebee nodded to the green haired pilot in agreement before he looked to his team once again and said, "Autobots, rev up and roll out!"

The team immediately jumped out the expansive roadway as they assumed their vehicle modes, and the minute they had hit the road, they were all off like lightning with Jazz, Smokescreen, and Bumblebee leading the group like they themselves were racers caught up in a serious race, when in reality they were really only racing for the fun of it, even though they were also racing to find the leader of Velocitron as well. "You see that, Yzak," Dearka stated from the Verde Buster's tank-like vehicle mode. "Now that's a battle cry. Maybe you should ask Bumblebee for some pointers in figuring out yours."

"Shut it, Dearka," Yzak snapped. "I'll figure out a good battle cry eventually. Besides, I heard that Bee took forever before he finally found one that actually worked."

Nicol just rolled his eyes in amusement, mostly because this was a conversation that Yzak had actually had with the other Gundam pilots many times before. Ever since Yzak had tried and failed to give out a good battle cry during the battle at Heaven's Base, they had all been teasing him every chance they got since he had still not figured out something that would work for him. When Nicol then thought of how Kira would probably try to come up with a battle cry of his own for the Gundam pilots, now that the ultimate Coordinator was made the official leader of the Gundam Team, Nicol had to try and suppress a shudder at the idea of Yzak trying to help out his fellow admiral.

As the pilots continued their mild banter and fantasizing, the three leading Autobots found themselves enjoying the opportunity to cut loose and hit their maximum speed as much as they could. This was due to the fact that it was dangerous to go too fast on Earth, and Cybertron was really the only place that most Autobots could race to at least half that speed without surpassing any speed limits. Jazz in particular was enjoying himself, as he had not had a chance to race like this since his days as a racer before the war, and he honestly thought that it felt good to get to do something like that again. The white and blue Autobot was brought out of his trip down memory lane when something suddenly rushed past them, leaving them in the dust as it did.

"Whoa," Springer gasped. "You guys saw that too, right?"

"Yeah," Arcee admitted in equal shock. "Now that's what I call fast."

"I've never seen something faster than that besides Blur," Smokescreen admitted.

A minute later, said fast moving object seemed to slow up for a minute, and from where they were, they could see the rear end of a red and white car with a pair of red and black wings on the back and a set of jet engines that seemed to be intended for granting an extra burst of speed. Thinking that this person was either challenging them or trying to gauge who they were, Bumblebee immediately accelerated until he had pulled ahead of the red and white car, and then immediately pulled to a stop and transformed just as he reached a large archway. A minute after he had done so, the red and white vehicle did the same as Bumblebee, but without slowing down all that much before jumping into the air and transforming, skidding to a stop just behind Bumblebee.

"For a second there I thought I was gonna run into you," the red and white 'Bot told Bumblebee from behind him as the other Autobots and Gundam pilots pulled up and transformed to bipedal mode as well, and from the sound of the 'Bot's voice, Bumblebee could immediately tell that this racer was obviously female.

"Don't kid yourself," Bumblebee said as he turned to face the femme. "I've had to take on a lot worse than that over the cycles."

The femme then turned around to reveal a cocky smirk on her gold colored face. She seemed to carry a large backpack that served as the jet engines of her vehicle mode on her back, while her arms were a bit thinner than the rest of her body. A pair of red horns in a v-shape was atop her head, and seemed to stop just between her blue optics. "So, you folks new around here," the femme then asked. "Cause I don't think I've ever seen any of you before."

"We're not from anywhere on this planet, actually," Bumblebee replied. "My name is Bumblebee. I'm a member of a group known as the Autobots from the planet Cybertron, as is most of my team." The former scout then went on to introduce the rest of the team to the femme, using the names of the pilots when he indicated the Gundams as he did.

"More of you guys claiming to be from Cybertron, huh," the femme asked with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice. "Well I guess I shouldn't be too surprised considering how those guys have been since getting here. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

Bumblebee and the others exchanged small looks of confusion between themselves after hearing the femme indicate there were others that saying they were from Cybertron, but they decided to file it away for later, as Bumblebee immediately asked, "For starters, we'd like to speak to whoever's in charge on this planet. The leader of Velocitron, I mean."

"Well congratulations. You've found her, big guy. Name's **Override** ," the femme then revealed as she finally gave them a name to go with her face.

"Well that was easy," Yzak muttered.

Bumblebee needed only a few seconds to shake off his surprise at Override's introduction before he stated, "Well for starters, there's a very serious threat to your planet, and we're here to both warn you about it and to find a way to prevent it from coming here. A group known as the Decepticons is seeking out underground pockets of Dark Energon on other worlds that had been colonized by Ancient Cybertronians, and we have reason to believe that your world is one of those planets."

Override seemed to consider Bumblebee's words for a minute before she finally said, "Look, you can save the whole Decepticon and Autobot babble for the locals. I've heard it all before from those other so-called 'Cybertronians', and I didn't buy it then either. I'll admit that one of them has been a big help in keeping **Ransack** in check, but beyond that, I'm not going to buy into that Cybertron stuff. That place is just an old legend that carriers tell their sparklings before bed time so that those kids can believe that there's something like that out there, but that's all it is, a legend, and if you want to convince me otherwise, you'll have to do better than that."

"Wait, back up a minute," Jazz then cut in. "Who's Ransack, and what do you mean other Cybertronians?"

Override just shook her head in disbelief as she stated, "Boy, you folks must be from way out of town to not know that. Ransack and his gang is the biggest opposition to my leadership of Velocitron, and they've tried plenty of different ways to steal that position from me over the years. Things had been starting to get a bit more difficult with him after a while, but that was before those first guys claiming to be Cybertronians showed up, and they've been helping out with him ever since. Doesn't mean that Ransack is going to quit so easily, though."

Bumblebee and Yzak could both already tell that if this Ransack person was as bad as Override was making him out to be, then that would likely make him a prime target for recruitment into the Decepticons. That still did not change the fact that they needed to get Override to see reason about the truth of their story. "Is there anything we can do to convince you that we're the real deal, or that you should at least consider preparing for a Decepticon invasion," Bumblebee then asked.

Override seemed to think for a minute before shooting Bumblebee a smile that seemed a bit too flirtatious for Arcee's liking as she said, "Well if it's that important to you, then you'll have to settle it like everything else is settled here on Velocitron, with a race."

"You can't be serious," Nicol exclaimed from his cockpit.

"What's the matter, kid," Override mocked as she sauntered up to Bumblebee. "Afraid handsome here can't take me?"

Arcee was already marching up to give Override a hard slap to get the racer away from her mech, only to be stopped by Springer before she could get close as Bumblebee gently pushed Override back and said, "How about this: if you can beat all of any three members of my team in a race, then we'll leave you alone for a bit after you take us to see these other Cybertronians that you mentioned, but if even one of those same three beat you, then not only do you take us to see those same Cybertronians, then you have to prepare your people for a possible Decepticon invasion, as well as telling us the possible locations that a Dark Energon pocket would be located at on your planet."

Override smirked in reply and accepted Bumblebee's terms, only saying that the likelihood of one of them beating her in a race was very slim since she was the fastest on Velocitron. A short while later, both Bumblebee and Override were waiting at the starting line along with Jazz and Smokescreen, waiting for the green light to start. As soon as they received the signal to go, the four racers were off like rockets, with the rest of Bumblebee's team following as close behind them as they could without getting into the race themselves. Almost mere minutes after blasting out of the gate, Override found herself slightly struggling to keep her early lead on the three Autobots, and she had to laugh a bit as she admitted, "Now this is a race!"

"Well enjoy it while you can," Jazz told Override as he pulled ahead of her. "Cause your about to eat my exhaust!"

"Don't bet on that, pal," Override stated as she began to get serious, pulling ahead of Jazz, and thus the two began to go back and forth as to who was in the lead and who was not, right to the point where they were neck-in-neck with one and other, while Bumblebee and Smokescreen did their best just to try and keep pace with the two. Eventually, Smokescreen was able to pull up alongside Override on the opposite side of the femme that Jazz was currently on, but a sudden sharp turn cause Smokescreen to slam on the brakes before he ended up crashing either into or through the wall and onto the desert ground bellow the massive roadway. Eventually, they could all see the finish line fast approaching, and that was more than enough of a cue for Override and Jazz to both put metal to the pedal as hard as they could in an attempt to be faster than the other, which resulted in a finish that was too close to call.

"Great. Now how're we gonna tell who won," Dearka moaned.

"Take it easy kid," Override told the Verde Buster pilot. "All the finish lines on Velocitron are outfitted with a system that grants an instant close up look when a photo-finish occurs. You just gotta look up at one of the monitors on either side of the archway, depending on which side you end up on after crossing the finish line."

"So then who won," Smokescreen asked as he and the others returned to robot mode.

Everyone had instantly turned to the monitor that Override had pointed out, and after the image had zoomed in a great deal, everyone could see that the leader of Velocitron had finished ahead of Jazz by a few centimeters. This came as a shock to all of the Autobots and humans, as they knew full well that aside from Blur, no one could even come close to beating Jazz in a race. "Well, a deal's a deal," Override smirked. "Just follow me and you'll see your fellow 'Cybertronians' in no time."

Bumblebee nodded in acceptance of that and moved to transform before along with the others before Override stopped him. "What's up," Bumblebee asked.

"Uh…about that Dark Energon thing…no idea where to look for that if it does exist. I just wanted to race," Override admitted.

Bumblebee just smirked in response as he said, "Well at least you're honest about it. Now, let's get going, shall we?"

Override just returned Bumblebee's smirk with one of her own as they both transformed into vehicle mode, and then headed off towards the location that Override had spoken of. As they went though, Arcee had to pull up alongside Override as she stated, "Some friendly advice: find your own mech to flirt with. Bumblebee's spoken for. Got that?"

"Relax girl," Override waved off. "I was just playing around, but now that you say that, you two do seem awfully good together."

"You got that right," Arcee admitted with pride, and with that, the rest of the journey was carried out in silence.

* * *

On a planet full of roads that are like race tracks, and even a good number of areas that were specifically designed to be just pure race tracks instead of roads for travel, there was always a large crowd gathered together at most of these areas and a lot of racers to go along with those crowds, leading to a lot of loud noise, which is why a particular mech currently in his vehicle mode of a blue race car with yellow windows and yellow wings that extended from his spoiler on the back was enjoying the peace and quiet of the small racing area that he and his friends now occupied since they had met both Override and the original resident, **Clocker**. It was not that he did not enjoy the attention, if anything he welcomed it with a passion, but when he was training for future races, he preferred the quiet that was normally only interrupted by his friends that were gathered on the side of the track over the cheering crowds.

As the blue mech came to a screeching stop after finishing his most recent run around the circuit of the track, the light blue, white, and orange mech known as Clocker raced up to him and exclaimed, "Hey check it out! You've beaten your old record by about three whole seconds!"

"Hey that's not bad," the mech admitted to Clocker. "But I've still gotta be better. After all, we gotta be ready for anything that Ransack and his goons might try."

"Still, you've been training non-stop for hours on end, kid," a red and silver mech with a black colored head stated as he walked up. "Don't you think you should at least take a break to grab a quick energon drink?"

"I'll take a break after one more run," the blue mech told the red one in retort. "I won't be able to be at my best if I don't know what my current limits are."

Before Clocker or the other mech could argue, another pair of mechs both mostly black with one having green racing stripes and the other having orange racing stripes suddenly rolled up to them and transformed into their bipedal mode as the green striped one said, "Yo, Boss Kid! You're girlfriend's here."

"Who're you guys talking about," the red and silver mech asked.

"Who else do you think that **Skids** is talking about," the orange striped one asked. "He means Override. Betcha she's here to see why her favorite stud hasn't asked her out yet."

"Sh-shut up, **Mudflap** ," the blue mech snapped. "She's not my girlfriend!"

"Well you oughta consider fixing that, 'cause it looks like she's got a few friends with her, and I wouldn't be surprised as if one of 'em is her new favorite mech," the green striped mech told the blue one.

Before anymore could be said between the group, Override herself rolled into the complex with the Autobots and Gundams right behind her in vehicle mode, just before the Velocitron leader transformed and stood before the group. "Hey Slick," Override called out as her gaze locked onto the blue mech's vehicle mode. "Hope you don't mind the sudden visit, but I've got a bunch of folks here who are about as crazy as you are in claiming that they're from Cybertron."

"Are you serious," the blue car asked as he finally assumed his robot mode, revealing himself to have a black colored torso, as silver face with blue optics under a yellow visor, red arms, and legs that were colored red at the top while being blue on the lower legs. "You know, a 'Bot can get really annoyed after you dump all these wannabe Cybertronians or just fan bots who want to hear about Cybertron on our doorstep every day, Override," the mech told the femme.

"You say it like it's my fault that you've got everyone getting so worked up over the fact that you insist that you come from a world that's nothing but a complete legend," Override retorted with a playful smirk.

Before the blue and black mech could say anything in response, Bumblebee had transformed into his bipedal mode and exclaimed, " **Hot Shot**? Hot Shot is that you?"

The mech finally turned his attention to the gathered Autobots who were all transforming into bipedal mode along with the Gundams, and his face immediately lit up like a Christmas tree when his optics fell upon Bumblebee before he exclaimed, "Bee, old buddy!"

The next thing anyone knew, the two Bots were exchanging fist bumps much like how Bulkhead and Wheeljack would on a nearly daily basis. "Well whaddya know," Arcee sighed happily. "You made it after all, Shot."

When Hot Shot heard Arcee's comment, he immediately turned to her and wrapped her in a friendly hug as he exclaimed, "Awe ya baby! The old gang's finally back together! Well, almost. All we need now is Cliffjumper. Where's that horn headed daredevil anyway?"

At the mention of their fallen comrade, Arcee's face immediately became downcast, as Bumblebee explained, "Sorry to tell you this, Hot Shot, but Cliffjumper died in a battle with the Decepticons on a planet called Earth, which is where we ended up along with Optimus Prime and a lot of other Bots."

Hot Shot's face immediately became crestfallen as well at hearing that one of his old friends was dead, but he quickly perked up when he registered something that he had missed before. "Wait a minute," Hot Shot whispered. "Bumblebee…you're talking!"

"Well of course he's talking," Override stated in a tone indicated she was pointing out the obvious. "How else could he have told you this stuff?"

"No, no, I mean that he's got his voice back," Hot Shot explained. "Bumblebee here got his voice box crushed in the line of duty at Tiger Pax and he hasn't been able to use it since. When did you finally get the thing fixed?"

"It's a long story," Bumblebee said with a sheepish expression reaching his face.

"Well feel free to tell it after I'm gone," Override said as she transformed back into her vehicle mode. "My job's done, so I'm out of here. See you on the race track, Slick."

"What's her deal," Bumblebee finally asked as soon as he was sure Override was out of audio receptor range.

"Don't sweat it too much," the red and silver Bot said as he approached the group. "Override is Velocitron's biggest Cybertron skeptic, so you can bet that it's going to take a whole lot more than anything we've tried to convince her that our stories are for real."

The minute he saw the red and silver mech and then heard his voice, Jazz immediately brightened up and then rushed towards said mech as he exclaimed, " **Sideswipe**! Haha! I was always wondering what happened to you ya ol' crazed pilot, you!"

"Jazz," Sideswipe exclaimed in reply as the two exchanged a fist bump. "Good to see you to pal."

"Okay, can someone please explain how you know these guys," Yzak then asked as he, Dearka, and Nicol all finally climbed out of their mobile suits.

The minute Hot Shot saw the three humans he immediately adopted a look of concern as he exclaimed, "Whoa, what's wrong with those Bots? They've got some kind of organic organisms coming out of their chests."

"Actually, the machines aren't Bots at all," Bumblebee clarified. "They're artificial machines created by the native dominant species of Planet Earth." He then gestured to the three humans before he said, "Allow me to introduce three of the human races top ace mobile suit pilots. Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Amalfi of the Blu Duel, Verde Buster, and Nero Blitz Gundams, respectively."

Hot Shot kneeled down a bit before he tentatively raised a finger and tried poking Yzak between the eyes until Yzak half-shouted, "Hey do you mind?! That's really rude, and not to mention that I need my helmet intact if I want to breath!"

"Intelligent organic life forms that can build their own Transformers," Sideswipe whistled in fascination. "Now I've seen everything."

"I think that former Commander Kup would have to disagree with you on that if he could," Smokescreen told Sideswipe.

"Wait a minute," one of the two near-look-a-like mechs then said after hearing Smokescreen's voice. "Smoky, is that you?"

As soon as he heard that name, Smokescreen had cringed in slight fright and began to regret speaking up as he silently prayed, "Oh no. Oh nonononononono, no. Please, anybody but them!"

"Hey Smoky," the second of the two mechs then exclaimed, denying Smokescreen of his wish as he and the other one wrapped one arm around Smokescreen each. "How ya been little mech?"

Bumblebee and the other Autobots were all doing their best to suppress their laughter, but they had a much harder time than the three pilots since said humans were still more confused than they were amused. All the while, Smokescreen was just groaning in slight annoyance as he moaned, "How many times have I told you guys not to call me 'Smoky'? Seriously, I hated it back at the Autobot Academy, and I hate it now."

"Awe come on, Smoky," the orange striped mech of the pair nudged. "Is that anyway to greet your old pals Skids and Mudflap?"

"If by 'pals' you mean my old bullies who turned me against my best friend back at the academy, then yeah, yeah it is," Smokescreen stated. He then noticed the looks everyone was giving him, and upon seeing this Smokescreen cleared his throat and said, "Uh, guys this is Skids and Mudflap, a couple of my old classmates from the Autobot Academy."

"Oh so these guys are the second coming of the Terror Twins," Jazz gasped in recognition before he turned to Sideswipe. "Speaking of which, where is Sunstreaker anyways?"

"I was hoping you guys would know," Sideswipe admitted. "We got separated when the _Ark_ was getting sucked into that unstable Space Bridge."

"Anyways," Bumblebee said as he brought his attention to the humans of the group, knowing that it was past time to clear up the confusion. "There are a few more introductions to be had. Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol, I'd like you guys to meet Sideswipe, one of the original Terror Twins of the Autobots and one of our best pilots, and mine and Arcee's old classmate and also the fastest 'Bot in our class, Hot Shot. Smokescreen has already introduced his old friends Skids and Mudflap…"

"We're _not_ friends," Smokescreen muttered in response to that as he finally shrugged off said twins.

"And this is…" Bumblebee had just gestured to Clocker when he paused and realized that he had no idea who the young Bot was. "Uh…do I know you?"

"Uh, no sir, Mister Bumblebee, sir," Clocker stuttered nervously, giving off the impression of a fan meeting his idol for the first time. "I'm Clocker, sir."

"Okay, first off, stop calling me 'sir'," Bumblebee interrupted before Clocker could get any further. "Second, Hot Shot, could you explain who this guy is to us?"

"Clocker's the first Velocitronian local that we met after Override, and he's been a bit more open minded to our claims about being from Cybertron," Hot Shot explained. "This is actually his place here, and he's been letting us stay here ever since we met him, seeing as we had no way of leaving the planet and nowhere else to go."

"Well that's about to change, kid," Jazz then revealed. "We can go back to Cybertron or take you to Earth where Optimus Prime and a bunch of other Autobots are right now, as soon as we take care of our business here on Velocitron."

Bumblebee was expecting all the Autobots that had landed on Velocitron to light up with excitement upon hearing Jazz's news, but to his surprise, they all actually adopted slightly sheepish expressions that indicated that while they were a bit excited at the news, there was something that they felt was keeping them from agreeing to go with them. "Is something wrong," Bumblebee asked. "I mean, Jazz just told you that Cybertron is restored and you guys can go home if you want, or that you could return to Earth with us. I thought you'd be excited about that."

"We are, Bee, really, but…we can't leave just yet," Hot Shot revealed. "And there's also some other things that I think you should clear up for us before we go any further into that line of conversation or our reasons for staying here."

"He has a point," Yzak agreed. "I mean, we did just tell him some really big news without really explaining much. It only makes sense that we should fill him and the others in on what's happened since they were separated from you guys."

Bumblebee nodded in agreement and then told Hot Shot and the others to get comfortable for the story that he was about to tell them. As soon they had all taken a seat in Clocker's garage, Bumblebee cleared his throat and began the story by saying, "I guess that the best place to start would be when I ended up being the first alien to make peaceful contact with humans by befriending the crew of the human vessel, the _Archangel_ and their Gundam pilot, Kira Yamato."

"…And that pretty much leads up to where we are now," Bumblebee then finished as he ended the story of all that had happened. Yzak and the other humans had given some input of their own every now and again so that more of the story could explained from the human perspective and so that parts of the story that Bumblebee was not around for could be recounted more accurately, and from the looks on the four Autobots' and the young Velocitronian's faces, it seemed that they were completely blown out of the water by the events that they had just shared.

"Allying with an alien race, ending both our war and wars of that same race, fighting both 'Cons and mobile suits, and an Autobot Civil War against Sentinel Prime and others who had chosen to follow him," Sideswipe recounted after he finally got his processor working again. "Man, you guys have had one crazy ride."

"If you think it was crazy for them, how do you think we feel," Dearka asked with a small laugh. "One minute we're fighting a war of our own, the next thing we know we're fighting in both our own war and a war between two alien races that had been fighting for millions of years."

"So now do you see why we need to be here and why we need you guys to help us out," Bumblebee asked.

"Yeah, I get all of that Bee," Hot Shot replied. "But we still can't help you. You see, a little while after we landed here on Velocitron, we kinda became Override's extra muscle when dealing with Ransack."

"You mean that Velocitronian who wants to take over control of the planet from Override," Nicol asked.

"That's the one," Hot Shot confirmed. "Let me put it this way, if Velocitron were Cybertron, then Override would be this planet's version of Optimus Prime and Ransack would be Megatron."

"Uh, he goes by Galvatron now ya know, but we still get the idea," Dearka interrupted.

"Whatever," Hot Shot waved off. "Anyways, before we got in on the action, Ransack's tactics were getting more and more dangerous and underhanded, right to the point where a lot of innocent Velocitronians had lost their lives in the process. After that, it seemed like no one would participate in the Velocitron Ultimate Grand Race besides Override and a small number of other brave racers, and without enough participants, there wouldn't be any race and Override would have been forced to choose the next leader of the planet, and she wouldn't be allowed to choose herself because that isn't allowed. She would've had to pick someone that a good number of people approved of or nominated, and at the time, the only mech that was nominated was Ransack, since no one wanted to try and challenge him after all that he had done. If we hadn't entered the race, Ransack would definitely be running Velocitron into ruin right now."

"How exactly would he have done that," Yzak asked, clearly wondering just how bad this Ransack really was in case it came down to a fight at some point.

"Well, the only way I can describe it is to explain the differences between his view points on how to lead Velocitron in comparison to Override's," Hot Shot answered. "You see, Override just wants Velocitron to remain a peaceful world where everyone can race to their spark's content just for the sake of racing and because they enjoy, but if Ransack were to take over, then only 'Bots that he thought were 'worthy' to race would be allowed, including those who were to compete in the Ultimate Grand Race, which would mean that Override would never be able to take her position as leader back through any means outside of force, and Velocitron rules state that the only way a leader for the planet can be decided is through the Ultimate Grand Race or through a formal challenge with that position on the line."

"I think I get it now," Nicol then said. "You're saying that you can't go with us to Cybertron or Earth because this Ultimate Grand Race is coming up and both Override and Ransack are entered as contestants. You don't want to actually win yourself, but you also don't want Ransack to win either. Is that it?"

"Yeah pretty much," Sideswipe confirmed as a mischievous smirk began to form on his face. "That and the fact that Hot Shot here has developed a bit of a thing for Override as well."

"I have not," Hot Shot immediately snapped as his face began to gain a small blush. "Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you guys that Override and I are just good friends?"

"You getting a sense of déjà vu, Arcee," Bumblebee asked.

"Yep," Arcee confirmed. "That's pretty much what we used to tell people before we finally got together."

"I…you…Th-that's completely…wait did you say you guys are together now," Hot Shot asked.

"Never mind that now," Yzak then said. "How long until this big race starts and how long does it last?"

"The race starts in a few solar cycles, and it lasts for a few Deca-cycles," Sideswipe replied.

"And in Earth time that is," Dearka then asked for clarification.

"A few days and a few weeks," Jazz replied in explanation.

"Alright then," Bumblebee said. "I guess it's pretty clear that Override's not going to believe our story without something drastic happening, so in the meantime, Hot Shot and the others will take part in this race like they've been doing along with Jazz, Smokescreen, and me. In the meantime, Yzak, you'll lead the others in locating the Dark Energon pocket as well as keeping an extra eye on the race to make sure that nothing goes wrong, and if something does happen, you'll need to respond accordingly."

"You've got it," Yzak replied with a quick salute along with the others.

As the pilots began boarding their machines so that they could do what they could to help out with both the search and preparing the other 'Bots for the race, Hot Shot walked up to Bumblebee and said, "You know, I appreciate the help, but you guys don't have to do this."

"I know, but I think I speak for my entire team when I say that we want to," Bumblebee told his old friend with a smile. "Plus, hopefully we can use this as a chance to prove our claims to Override. Although, I think Smokescreen won't be able to enjoy it as much as the rest of us, considering he doesn't seem to get along that well with Skids and Mudflap."

Hot Shot could only laugh along with his old friend in response to that before the two joined the other 'Bots that would be competing in the race for a few practice runs on the track that made up the rest of Clocker's home while the other members of his team took off to return to their ship for a moment both so that they could move the ship closer to Clocker's home and so that they could attempt to locate the Dark Energon pocket with the ship's scanners. "So, nearly became the next Prime and then made commander of an entire Autobot division, huh," Hot Shot asked Bumblebee as they assumed their starting positions along with Jazz and the others.

"Yep," Bumblebee admitted proudly. "We've really come a long way since the old days, huh pal?"

"Yes we have," Hot Shot agreed right before Clocker gave the signal to start, and the minute they had all received said signal, they were all off and racing around the track with a new determination and a new goal as well.

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Autobot Personel File, ID: Hot Shot**

 **All Current Bio Intel:**

 **A long time friend of the Autobot Warrior, Bumblebee, Hot Shot had known the leader of the Autobot Earth Division long before he had even met Arcee, and the two had been best friends since their days as sparklings. The two went on to become classmates and best friends at the Autobot Academy with Arcee and Cliffjumper, at which point the four had become known as the Academy's most well-known group of students. There was rarely a moment when the four were not all together outside of class. After graduating from Autobot Academy, Hot Shot was assigned to a scouting team along with Bumblebee before his old friend had joined up with Optimus's team. Deciding to stay with his original team, Hot Shot proved that his most valuable asset was his incredible speed and maneuverability that could only be matched by Autobot First Lieutenant Jazz. When the Autobots were ordered to evacuate Cybertron, Hot Shot was one of the Autobots on the _Ark_ that was thrown to a different location in the galaxy than Earth along with the Autobots known as Sideswipe, Skids, and Mudflap, when the ship was sucked into the unstable Space Bridge. After crash landing on Velocitron, Hot Shot had somehow managed to end up as leader of his group of Autobots with Sideswipe acting as his partner, and the team soon found themselves as Velocitron's newest defenders against Ransack and his gang.**

* * *

 ** _AN: Well I'd say that introduces the world of Velocitron in this story quite nicely, and now we've got some old friends and new faces joining in on the adventure as Bumblebee's team has somehow managed to land themselves right in the middle of Velocitron's problems. Quite the unexpected development, or at least it would be if we didn't want the story to not have a bit of a sub-plot on each of the world we visited._**

 ** _See, here's my line of thinking, each world that our heroes will visit will have its own unique rules, citizens, and of course problems, so with the Autobots and Gundam pilots being who they are, it would be a bit strange for them not to have a small adventure on each of these worlds, wouldn't you agree?_**

 ** _Speaking of all that, don't think that all the focus will remain on whatever world a team has been deployed to until they leave, because there are other heroes in this story, and they've got a few things to deal with as well. I know it sounds like I'm basically just giving a few fillers, but I really like to think that such chapters contribute to the plot and in explaining how some things have changed since Destiny Sentinels. Here's a hint at what the next chapter will be showing us when we zip back to Earth for a bit, coming as soon as I say, Onto the preview!..._**

 ** _As the Velocitron team begins to take on their newest assignment on the racing planet, the heroes of Earth are doing their best to keep the peace as best as they can, even going so far as to insist on continuing one of Earth's newest days of celebration as a way of showing the people of Earth that they are not going to cower and hide in the face of the Decepticons' newest schemes. Will the celebrations be completely peaceful, or will Galvatron have other plans? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 6: Day of Transformation** ** _. Optimus, Strike Freedom, show that nothing will deter this grand day of festivities!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	6. Day of Transformation

_**AN: Hey everybody, and for all you American followers, Happy 4th of July! [starts singing] cue the national anthem!**_

 _ **[said song starts playing]**_

 _ **Kira: Uh lyoko, [music stops] What're you doing that for?**_

 _ **AN: What? You got something against such a great holiday?**_

 _ **Athrun: No, but you do remember that the Gundam SEED characters are all from a Japanese cartoon, and most of us were either born or live in a different nation or in space right?**_

 _ **AN: So what? That doesn't mean you can't have a bit of that good ol' American spirit!**_

 ** _Rau: Hah! You want to talk about spirit? Well I'll be feeling rather spirited for the moment when Starscream's actions cause..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control and Captain America comes blasting in and destroying Le Creuset's Gundam and beating the tar out of Le Creuset single-handed]_**

 ** _Bumblebee: Wow, he's really going all out on the American spirit today if he got Captain America to do that for this chapter._**

 ** _Captain America: Actually a part of it is because he plans on doing a Captain America/Gundam SEED crossover sometime in the near future after he finishes with this series at least._**

 ** _AN: And on that note, one thing I want to address before we get to the main event, a lot of people have been bugging me about how this is seeming to be a lot like Transformers Cybertron, so I'm going to say this slowly so that you can all understand. This...is...not...like...that...series. Just because Velocitron is in it doesn't mean that places like Giant Planet or Beast Planet will be, so stop thinking like that, because we will not be going to Gigantia, and the only time you will be likely to see a Jungle Planet will be near the end, after this little exploration of the universe arc is long over._**

 ** _Arcee: Do you have an official name for this arc yet?_**

 ** _AN: Uh...well...I'm working on it! Oh, just get to the story._**

 ** _As stated before, new Transformers that are officially appearing or getting mentioned in some important way for the first time in this story will have their names in bold._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Day of Transformation**

 **Location: Earth**

Many say that fire has two sides to it, one side that represents life, burning desires, and flames of determination, and the other being the one that represents destruction, pain, and sorrow. Many would rather focus on the positive sort of fire as they go about their lives, but unfortunately, no one could help but think of the more terrible side of fire at the moment, as a high school somewhere in the Americas was enshrouded in a terrible blaze. The exact cause of the fire that had ensnared the building and forced an evacuation of the school's staff and students was yet to have been determined, but at the moment, all anyone really cared about was keeping the institute of education from being burned to the ground and rescuing anyone who was still trapped inside. Emergency personnel were doing everything they could to contain the situation, but there was only so much that a person could do when they are only human. Thankfully, a few non-human helping hands were on the scene to assist as well.

This was evident by the fact that a yellow and silver helicopter suddenly flew onto the scene and dumped a massive amount of water on top of the building, before transforming to reveal Evac of the Protectobots had arrived on the scene. As soon as he landed on the ground, he reached into one of the windows that was on the second floor of the three story building, and pulled out a small handful of students before setting them on the ground. After doing so, Evac raised a hand to his comm. link and cried out, "Protectobots, roll to the rescue!"

"Isn't that someone else's line," Inferno asked as he raced onto the scene in his fire truck mode before transforming and firing a blast of water from his fire hose-like rifle.

"If it is then I kinda doubt that they'll be complaining that much," Roadblock told his twin as he came up beside him and did the same as the fire truck of the two was doing with his own rifle. "I mean, considering that our team is kind of an emergency response sort of unit, it does kind of fit for us just as much."

"Cut the chatter, 'Bots," Evac told the two as he radioed the rest of his team and assumed his helicopter mode once more so that he would be more effective. "My sensors are picking up some human life signs that are still trapped inside the building."

"Copy that, Evac. I'm moving in to secure the civilians now," Prowl shouted over his siren as he raced towards the building. A minute later, the police car Protectobot had smashed through the entrance to the school and began racing through the hallways, which were surprisingly spacious enough for him to actually maneuver through for the most part. He did not stop until he finally located three students, one of which was buried under a collapsed ceiling and likely needed medical attention.

Seeing this, Prowl immediately activated his Holo-Form, which took on the appearance of a silver haired police officer, and quickly moved the debris off the trapped civilian while gesturing to the other two students to help pull their classmate to safety. As soon as that was done, Prowl guided the civilians into his vehicle mode, then floored his accelerator and raced out of the building to the gathered crowd outside and a waiting Red Alert who had just pulled up in his ambulance mode. Prowl's Holo-Form materialized once again and carried the injured person over to the Protectobots' medical officer as Red Alert did the same with his own Holo-Form so that he could give the injured human a proper examination. Red Alert's Holo-Form then smiled at his patient as he said, "Looks like you were lucky. Just some minor burns and a sprained leg, but otherwise, you'll be fine. I'd recommend visiting a hospital as soon as possible and a few days of bed rest all the same though."

The student nodded to Red Alert in thanks for his comment as Prowl's Holo-Form vanished and the police 'Bot transformed to robot mode as he radioed Evac asking, "Sir, are there any civilians still trapped inside?"

"From what I can tell, there's only one group of five left on the third floor, but the fire's too hot for me to get close enough," Evac replied.

"Don't worry Protectobots, we've got your back," a new voice suddenly said, and everyone turned to see Swoop and Ultra Magnus racing towards the latter assumed his robot mode while the former elected to stay in his pterodactyl mode as he flew up to the level of the building that Evac had indicated. Ultra Magnus quickly used a fire suppressor to douse the flames in the area he needed to before he shouted for the students to stand clear and fired a low level blast of energon from his default gun, creating an opening for Swoop to fly up to and allow the humans to climb out of and onto his back. "Hey folks," Swoop called to the students as he floated up to the hole in the wall. "New fire exit's open for business. Everybody climb on and keep your hands and arms inside at all times, because this Dinobot doesn't want to have to pull some crazy flying in case someone falls off by accident."

As soon as everyone was on his back, Swoop immediately took off as slowly and gently as he could before landing amidst the crowd of humans who were cheering excitedly for the efforts of the Earth Division Autobots, but that did not mean the job was done yet, and the Autobots were not about to stop until the crisis was averted.

* * *

 _"_ _That was the scene earlier today at Kingdom Central High school, and we're now here live with the Protectobot leader, Evac, and the Autobot Earth Division second-in-command, Ultra Magnus, the real heroes of the day,"_ a female report stated in the news report that was playing in the Autobot base of New Iacon City after Fixit had tuned into it.

 _"_ _You are too kind in your words ma'am, but don't credit only the leaders for an accomplishment of the entire team,"_ Ultra Magnus stated as he spoke to the reporter.

 _"_ _Magnus is right,"_ Evac agreed. _"This was a team effort, like all operations that any of the Autobots carry out. Everyone here is to be thanked for their heroic efforts today."_

"Wow," Fixit gasped excitedly. "It is so amazing that human television can really show the true colors of such great kilos…yeros…heroes!"

"Fixit, could you turn that down for a minute," Kira requested from where he and Optimus were currently standing. "We're trying to get a report from the Velocitron team."

"Oh, sorry sir," Fixit stated as he turned down the volume of the new report and allowed Optimus and Kira to turn their attention back to the monitor that was currently displaying Bumblebee and Yzak's images.

"I know that we need to do almost whatever it takes to get the locals of each of these worlds to prepare for the threat of the Decepticons and their Predacon, but I honestly don't know if this is a good idea Yzak," Kira told the silver haired pilot. "I mean, participating in this race would seem like a bit of an excuse to slack off to some people, and while you guys are doing that, the Decepticons could be moving in as we speak."

 _"_ _I know that Kira,"_ Yzak told the Strike Freedom pilot. _"But unfortunately the only other thing we can do at the moment to convince Override that the Decepticon threat is real would be to let her get caught up in an attack or bring her to Cybertron by force, and I doubt that either option is all that appealing to anyone."_

"Be that as it may, we must still exercise caution on the matter," Optimus stated. "If participating in this race and assisting with keeping peace on Velocitron for the moment truly seems to be the best course of action from your standpoints, then I doubt that Kira and I really have a place to argue seeing as you are the ones who are onsite and have a better understanding of the situation."

 _"_ _In all honesty Optimus, I'm not entirely sure if it is our best move, but at the moment it is our only one,"_ Bumblebee reported. _"I know Hot Shot personally, and if he says that doing this will weigh things in our favor, then we can't afford to ignore that."_

"Understood," Optimus replied. "Carry on as you were, but be sure to report in should anything else develop from the situation, whether it be confirmed Decepticon sightings or even just a suspicion of their presence there."

 _"_ _Yes sir,"_ Bumblebee and Yzak replied, and with that, they closed the communication, leaving Kira and Optimus to discuss both what they had just heard from the two and other matters as well. In all honesty, Kira was still a bit skeptical about settling the problems the team on Velocitron was currently facing by taking part in one of the planet's biggest races, but Optimus was quick to argue that it was the custom of Velocitron, so they really had no other choice than to let the team proceed as such, not that Optimus was all that fond of the idea himself. Still, both were confident in Bumblebee and Yzak's decisions and capabilities as the team leaders, so they agreed to leave matters as they stood for now, and decided to move on to the more important matter of that day.

"Are you sure we should still go through with this," Kira finally asked when they reached the topic. "I mean, I get that this event is one of Earth and Cybertron's most important ones, but we both know that it could just as easily be a major target for the Decepticons as well."

"I am well aware of that Kira," Optimus nodded. "But that is all the more reason why we should go through with the event. To do otherwise would lead the people of Earth and Cybertron to believe that the Decepticons are a threat great enough to invoke fear in their protectors, and that would cause them to lose confidence in us as well. That is something we cannot afford to let happen. I understand the risks involved in the matter, but we must keep the people's spirits high and show them that they need not fear what tomorrow may or may not bring."

Kira sighed in defeat, knowing that he was not going to win this argument, and then smiled and said, "And here I was hoping that I would be able to get out of making an appearance in the parade."

Optimus had to give a small smile in good humor, as he knew that Kira was not entirely serious about that statement. You see, the two were actually discussing the parade that always came around on this particular day, because it celebrated the day when the Autobots made first contact with humanity and became allies and friends with them, otherwise known as the newest Earth holiday, the Day of Transformation. It had become something of a custom on Earth sometime after the Autobots had started up the Earth Division, and it was nothing too special at first really, just a small carnival and a chance for people to properly meet the Autobots and get a few pictures with them. Overtime, the event began to become a yearly celebration that was even accompanied by a parade in which both the Autobots and the allies they had made in Orb, Z.A.F.T., or any other organization would appear before the people, and the carnival itself became something that was almost on par with some of the human world's most famous theme parks. To this date, the last Prime and the ultimate Coordinator had only appeared in the parade and the meet and greet sessions one time on this newest Earth celebration, and given the circumstances, many thought that the celebrations would end up being canceled this year, that is until a certain blonde co-leader of Orb and the Sol Federation insisted on continuing with them and even promising to get both her brother and Optimus to appear as a way of showing the people that there was no need to be too worried.

"I still don't know how Cagalli did it," Kira moaned. "I mean, I thought for sure that the other world leaders would vote to cancel the celebrations, but from the way she tells it, she basically promised to get us there, and they all did a complete 180 on the matter."

"It's really not that surprising to be honest," Heine said as he and Hound entered the room, the orange haired pilot already being decked out in his dress uniform since he was to make an appearance in the parade as well. "I mean, to the people of both Earth and Cybertron, you two are the most powerful defenders of both worlds and their greatest heroes, so saying that you'll be at this event is a guaranteed way of showing that both worlds' protectors are not about to back down from anything."

"Well thanks for putting us up on such a high pedestal, Heine," Kira remarked sarcastically.

"Hey, he's just telling it like it is," Hound shrugged. "Anyway, we're mostly here to see if you guys were about to get ready yet, because we need to be at starting point of the parade in a couple hours, and Lacus, Cagalli, and Audrey are all going to go nuts if even one of us is late."

Optimus and Kira both nodded and then moved off to other rooms in the base so that they could make themselves presentable for the parade that was about to commence, both making sure to not let either Heine or Hound see how nervous they were about this particular event as they did.

* * *

Kira and Optimus were not the only ones who were anxious at the moment, because down in Morgenroete, Lunamaria was looking over the specifications of her new machine once again, not because she was nervous about the parade or the festivities, she was actually quite excited since she had taken part in the parade every year since the very first one, but her anxiousness actually had more to do with a small mystery that she just could not seem to figure out for some strange reason. No matter how many times she looked into one specific detail about her suit, she just could not figure out the solution to her small mystery.

Noticing his girlfriend's frustration, Shinn took a break from doing maintenance on his own machine to walk over and ask Lunamaria what was wrong after hearing her groan in frustration for the fifth time that day. "What's up Luna," Shinn asked as soon as he was next to the violet-red haired girl.

Lunamaria jumped a little at Shinn's sudden question, as she did not even register his approach until he was right there. She then took a small breath to calm down a bit before she replied, "It's nothing really, just something really weird about the Pure Impulse that I'm trying to figure out."

"What's that," Shinn asked.

Luna then waved for Shinn to follow her, and she led him up to the Gundam's cockpit where she indicated a certain area of the control panel. From where Shinn was, it looked like something that required the use of a keycard in order to be activated, but Shinn could not really tell anything more beyond that until Lunamaria explained, "I've been wondering what this keycard control does ever since I spotted it the other day. From what I can tell, it unlocks a specific weapons system for the Pure Impulse, but no matter what I do I can't seem to activate it or even figure out exactly what system it controls."

"Did you talk to Banagher or Miss Erica about it," Shinn asked.

"Yeah, and that's the really weird thing. When I asked them about it they said that they had no idea what it was either," Lunamaria then revealed. "When I showed it to them, they told me that they didn't remember ever installing the thing in here, and yet here it is, built in like it was meant to be here for some weird reason."

"How could the two guys who were leading the development of the Transformer Gundams not know about a feature in one of the machines," Shinn asked. "Do you think that someone put it in there without either of them knowing?"

"That's what I thought too, but Banagher said that nothing was done in here without him or Miss Erica around to keep an eye on things."

"If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one facing this little mystery," a familiar voice suddenly called out to the two, and they both immediately turned to see Athrun standing on the floor next to the Pure Impulse's feet, dressed in his Orb Forces dress uniform.

"What do you mean by that Athrun," Shinn asked as he and Lunamaria came down from the Pure Impulse's cockpit.

"When I was going over the Infinite Justice's specs recently to see how much of them had changed, I found weapons system that I was unable to access as well," Athrun explained. "There wasn't anything like what's in the Pure Impulse, but instead when I tried to activate it I just got an error that said insufficient power."

"But that's impossible," Lunamaria protested. "The Transformer Gundams run on Energon Reactor Cores. They shouldn't have insufficient power for any of their systems for several years at least."

"I know, but that's what the thing said," Athrun shrugged. "At any rate, it seems that the two of us are the only ones whose machines have that kind of problem at the moment, and it doesn't look like the mystery systems will affect the performance of either of our machines negatively if we leave them alone for a moment, so we shouldn't worry about it too much for now. Especially since we've all got to be somewhere in a few minutes."

Shinn had to smirk as he said, "What's the matter? Afraid your wife's gonna make you sleep on the couch if you're late, Athrun?"

"First off, if Cagalli gets that mad at me, she's not gonna make me sleep on the couch, mostly because it's actually really comfortable to sleep on, she'll more than likely make me sleep in one of the Orb military bases," Athrun replied with an honest face, showing that he was not joking, which is not to say that he had ever had to do so since he was very careful not to get Cagalli that angry. "Second off, she may not get that mad, but she will still be mad at all of us if we're not there on time. Third, just wait till you finally decide to go that far with Luna, Shinn, and then we'll see whose laughing at whom about that kind of thing."

Shinn and Lunamaria both gained brilliant blushes at what Athrun had just implied, and immediately elected to run off and get themselves straightened out and dressed up for the parade instead of retorting in their embarrassment, leaving Athrun to simply smirk victoriously at their departing figures as they did.

* * *

Of all the Autobots that took place in the parade that started off the celebrations for the Day of Transformation, there was only one that always found time to complain, just as he was doing right at that very moment. "Me, Grimlock not want to do this," the Dinobot leader grumbled. "Why Dinobots always have to come? Why can't puny humans just let us do what Dinobots want to on this day?"

"Because you guys are fan favorites," Cagalli immediately told Grimlock with a smug smile as she smoothed out her white and blue dress uniform that she normally wore on these occasions, having flatly refused multiple times to wear a dress every time someone so much as approached the topic. "People really love the Dinobots and they think you guys are the coolest and toughest of all the Autobots for some weird reason. Are you really going to let them think you don't like them, or that you're probably not showing up because you get stage fright?"

"Me, Grimlock not afraid of anything," Grimlock huffed. He then glanced around before he leaned down and whispered, "Are Dinobots really that po…popu…cool to humans?"

Cagalli smirked as she simply nodded in reply, knowing that line had Grimlock completely hooked on participating and it would cause the Dinobot leader to cease his complaining as it did every year. She then looked to see that everyone was just about ready for the parade to begin aside from her brother and Optimus, who had yet to show up. Cagalli was about to walk over and ask Lacus where the pink songstress's husband was, when the two leaders finally rolled onto the scene shouting that they were there. After shaking her head in amusement at the twos eagerness to not be late when they still had a good fifteen minutes or so before it was time to begin, Cagalli told the festival staff that everyone was here, and they were all quickly being lined up for the parade.

Not long after everyone was in place, the signal went out for the parade to begin, and the group was immediately greeted by excited cheers and jubilant cries from everyone who had gathered in New Iacon city for the day's festivities. From where she was, Cagalli could already hear a pair of reporters broadcasting the events of the parade worldwide, but she was not complaining, as the sight of all the people who were eager to meet either the soldiers that had played such pivotal roles in the previous wars alongside the Autobots and the 'Bots themselves was enough to help her ignore the reporters' comments. Not that any of them were bad comments, but Cagalli honestly found them to be rather distracting. That did not mean that she did not hear them at all.

"Hello everyone, my name is Sora Rogers," a male reporter said into his microphone as he looked at the camera.

"And I'm Asuna Prince," his female partner said. "Coming to you live from the parade to kick start the events of this year's Day of Transformation festival, right here in New Iacon City. Sora, I have to say that it's amazing that the festivities are taking place at all, given recent events."

"Right you are Asuna, but Lady Cagalli and Lady Mineva were not about to let the threat of the Decepticons stop one of Earth's most famous holidays from taking place. And speaking of which, here come the co-leaders of Orb and the Sol Federation now, alongside Elita One and Ultra Magnus."

"And following just shortly after them are Lady Cagalli's husband, Athrun Zala, and the former command crew of the famous first ship of the Archangel class, the _Archangel_. Now if you want to talk about surprising, here's surprising for you, as the former _Archangel_ Captain, Murrue Ramius La Flaga is actually making an appearance here, which is really saying something as she is expecting a child soon."

"Well I guess it just goes to show that one of the greatest reasons why the _Archangel_ was never sunk in her time in service was because of its captain, and of course we can't forget about the Autobots who allied themselves with the _Archangel_. Of course it could be because riding on that float may be a way for them to all remember the good old days aboard their ship."

"Yes that's right. The _Archangel_ is so celebrated that it has been given its own float in the parade, which as always has been made as near-exact scale replica of the ship itself, and right alongside the smaller-scale ship is none other than the Autobot Wrecker, Wheeljack and the weapons specialist of the Autobots, Ironhide."

The reporters went on like this for some time, pointing out both the bands that were performing in the parade, and who was on what float with which Autobots, even going so far as to mention the nicknames of some of the groups, like how Shinn and his fellow former _Minerva_ pilots were nicknamed the Destiny Team, until the crowd's cheers became even louder at the sight of Optimus Prime cruising down the street in his vehicle mode with Kira riding alongside him in a separate car. The parade finally came to a stop at a small stage that was set up in front of the entrance to the festival site, and Cagalli, Audrey, and Lacus all immediately made their way onstage so that Cagalli could give an opening speech to the people.

The blonde world leader cleared her throat with a quick cough, and then raised her hands to quiet the cheering crowds before she began, saying, "Five years ago, humanity believed that we were alone in the universe, until a discovery by the original crew of the famous _Archangel_ proved otherwise, and we found ourselves caught up in the struggle of an alien race that came from the other side of the galaxy, at a moment when we ourselves were caught in our own war. Many were skeptical of the Transformers for the longest time, but we soon came to realize that while some may have been here to bring harm to us, there were just as many who came here to protect us, as they had come to consider our planet as their second home. I myself have fought alongside the freedom fighters of Cybertron, and I have come to consider them not only as comrades, but also as friends, as family."

"That is why I am happy that we now celebrate all that the Autobots have done for both our world and our race today, and it is also why despite the returning threat of the Decepticons, we shall not show any fear knowing that the Autobots and the newly formed Gundam Team will not let Galvatron's forces terrorize our world or any world into never even leaving our homes. Now, join me in welcoming the leaders of the Autobots and the Gundam Team, as we officially begin the Day of Transformation Celebrations. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Optimus Prime and Kira Yamato!"

At the sound of their names being called, Optimus immediately transformed into his robot mode, showing the world how his armor shined and seemed to sparkle from the recent buff job he had been given before coming to the parade, and Kira climbed out of the car he had been riding in as he made his way over to the Strike Freedom Gundam, which had been standing off to the side out of everyone's sight until now, and climbed into its cockpit. Optimus and the Strike Freedom then stood before the crowd as they grasped each other's hands in a firm handshake as the two declared, "Let the Day of Transformation begin!"

The effect was immediate, as the crowd quickly erupted into cheers and began to steadily but quickly make their way towards the entrance of the festival, and onto the festival grounds. Soon after, the festival was fully underway, with people eagerly running up to meet some of their favorite Autobots or Gundam pilots, or simply going for rides on the many attractions that were in the festival, like the Aerial Racer roller coaster, and even enjoying a few of the special shows that the festival offered, such as a music performance by Blaster, if one wanted to call it that, and even a small show fight between Grimlock and Hound, or really any pair of Autobots that wanted to just have a light sparring match, and even a match between a Gundam pilot and an Autobot, starting with Wheeljack and Mu La Flaga, who was piloting the recently fully upgraded GAT-CX105B/ST Star Force Strike Gundam.

That was not to say that the entire festival was just shows, rides, and chances for photo-ops and autograph signings, as there were also quite a few special food stops as well that you would only find at this particular festival or in New Iacon City, and one of the most popular restaurants in the festival was known as the Desert Tiger Café, run by none other Andrew Waltfeld and Aisha. Naturally, some people were a bit put off by Waltfeld's strange behavior towards food and drinks, especially in the case of coffee, but after a while, it actually became one of the restaurant's main attractions to keep people coming back, as they were all hoping to get a taste of one of the many Waltfeld specials and an impromptu visit from the Desert Tiger himself so that he could give them an extravagant recommendation on what dishes to enjoy and how.

Looking around, Kira could not help but smile at the sights of people enjoying themselves and the Autobots exchanging a few laughs with the people who came up to them for autographs and pictures, and he honestly felt that keeping this festival going was indeed a good way to keep the people's spirits up. At one point, he even saw Grimlock having a strange conversation with a little boy named Riku that ended up making everyone laugh, much to the Dinobot leader's obliviousness as to what was so funny. Of course, Kira was still wondering where Grimlock had gotten the tie he was currently wearing, but in the end it did not really matter as everything was going perfectly save for the fact that the festival was not going to be having its usual musical performance by Nicol and Dearka's band.

His happiness at how things were going was short lived, when he spotted the familiar form of the Seeker Siblings, Cyclonus, Astrotrain, the Predacon, and another flyer that had a green and black color scheme flying towards the site of the festival. Kira immediately raced over to Optimus to inform him of what he had just seen, and Optimus was quick to begin taking action. "We must keep them away from the festival, but at the same time, we should keep the people's attention away from the battle so that we do not cause a panic," Optimus whispered both to Kira and into his comm. link as he relayed the orders to the other Autobots and Gundam pilots and their friends and allies.

 _"_ _I think I can help with that,"_ Feldt immediately said. _"Just try to get everyone's attention on the stage, and I'll handle the rest. I might need some technical help on that as well, though."_

"Understood Miss Grace," Optimus nodded. "The Aerialbots, Crosshairs, Magnus, Wheeljack, and I will engage the Decepticons. The rest of you are to assist in keeping the crowd's attention away from the battle and from panicking if you are unable to do that."

"Mu, Shinn, Athrun, and Luna, you guys and I will backup Optimus and the others who will be engaging the 'Cons," Kira then followed up. "The rest of you help the other Autobots."

A chorus of yes sirs was the immediate response, but it did not stop anyone from hearing Grimlock moaning, "Me, Grimlock, not gonna get to punch any 'Cons today."

Kira and the other humans chuckled at Grimlock's small complaint for a couple minutes, and then boarded their respective Gundams before they transformed the machines into their vehicle modes and followed after Optimus and the others who had already gone ahead. As soon as Optimus and Kira's teams had left the area, the audience's attention was immediately drawn to the stage as Feldt suddenly appeared before them with a microphone in hand before she said, "Hello everyone! I know you were all probably expecting Nicol and Dearka to perform today, but they were off on another assignment with Bumblebee and the other Autobots who were unable to attend today, so I'll be performing a small song I wrote a while back in their place. This song is called 'Transformers EVO', and is inspired by the Transformers themselves, in case you didn't realize that, and my name is Feldt Grace. I hope you all enjoy this performance."

The audience immediately clapped in excitement as Sai started up a music track that he had helped Feldt to make for this song specifically, and soon enough, Feldt had everyone cheering excitedly for her as she sang the song that was all her own and not one that was made specifically for Lacus or with Lacus in mind, and it honestly made her feel really good which was evident by the brilliant smile that lit up her face and had Sai staring at her like a love-sick puppy.

* * *

Optimus and Kira were racing to intercept the approaching Decepticons as fast as they could, and as they were, both leaders had to note that they could hear a bit of Feldt's song, which they had to admit was rather catchy, and the vehicle mode that Mu had chosen for the Star Force Strike. In all appearances, the machine seemed to have assumed the vehicle mode of a larger, more heavily armed version of the Sky Grasper planes with the Star Force Strike's colors, while the white backpack of the machine was mounted on top of the plane as an optional escape craft. It really was not much of a surprise that Mu would choose an aerial based vehicle mode for his Gundam, given his history of machines that he had piloted both as Mu La Flaga and as Neo Roanoke.

They eventually spotted the approaching Decepticons and their new pet, and the 'Bots on the ground and Kira all immediately switched to robot mode before opening fire on them, while the Aerialbots remained in their jet modes along with Mu, Shinn, Luna, and Athrun so that they could engage some of the enemy in a full-on dogfight. The Decepticons were caught off guard at first, having not expected the Autobots to hit them first, but they were quick to recover and return fire as Starscream ordered the Predacon to move towards the fair grounds. The beast did not seem to listen to Starscream, as it instead chose to try and fight the Aerialbots, until Mu flew into its path and transformed the Star Force Strike into Gundam mode before opening fire with the Star Force Strike's beam cannons. The blast was enough to knock the beast out of the air for a minute, but that was just long enough for Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus to run up with both Wheeljack's swords and the Forge of Solus Prime in hand, respectively, and begin to fight back against the beast with Mu and Athrun continuing to hit it from above.

While they were doing that, Shinn, Lunamaria, and the Aerialbots were quick to engage Cyclonus, Astrotrain, and the unknown flyer, while Optimus and Kira went directly after Starscream himself with their weapons at maximum. "You're not getting anywhere near the festival Starscream," Kira shouted as he swung his sword at the Seeker Sibling leader.

"I doubt that, little human," Starscream retorted before the Freedom was suddenly hit in the leg by a sniper shot. Optimus immediately turned and spotted Quicksilver just a short ways off from their position with his rifle armed, and he immediately blasted into the air to avoid the follow-up shot that Quicksilver had fired in his direction before firing a single blast from his arm blaster that knocked Quicksilver off of his perch and onto the ground bellow. Quicksilver was quick to rise to his feet once again, and attempted to charge Optimus, but a quick series of blasts from the Strike Freedom's arm blaster immediately impeded his path before Kira locked his machine's sword with Starscream's. "I'll admit, your new machines seem rather impressive, but they also boast of your envy towards beings that are far superior to you. And you claim to view the Autobots as your friends."

"Go ahead and try to tear us apart with mind games," Kira shouted as he pushed Starscream away and slashed him across his chest with a powerful swipe. "It'll never work!"

As Kira and Optimus continued to fight against Starscream and Quicksilver, Shinn and Lunamaria were forced to leave the remaining Seeker Siblings and Cyclonus to the Aerialbots while they themselves ended up facing Astrotrain and the new comer. Looking at the new Decepticon, Shinn could not help but think that this particular 'Con looked a lot like what he imagined Starscream's original Cybertronian form would have been except for the color scheme. "So, this is one of the capabilities of the humans who pilot mobile suits," the new 'Con smirked. "Quite impressive, but I have to wonder just what would result from a human that has been augmented by my own methods. Perhaps if I were to attempt to combine the human genetic traits with that of this world's most fearsome animals."

"What the hell," Shinn shouted as he charged the Grand Destiny forward with its Anti-Ship swords combined together. "What's your problem, thinking that you can just mess with people like that? Who the hell are you?"

"Ah, you wish to know the name of the one who will improve your species," the 'Con smirked before he parried the blow from Shinn's machine with his scalpel-shaped sword, and knocked the combined swords away. "I go by the name of **Headcase** , scientist of the Decepticons, and I find altering the DNA of organic life to be quite fascinating. After all, given the resulting creatures and beasts that come from doing so, who wouldn't find that thrilling?"

"That is just sick and wrong," Shinn groaned as he armed one of the Grand Destiny's arm blasters, which looked similar to the ones Wheeljack used, and then pulled out the Ascalon beam sword with the other before he charged in once again. He then began to fire a series of blasts on Headcase until he was close enough to swing the sword at the Decepticon scientist in an attempt to cleave him in half. He was unprepared when Headcase suddenly fired a blast of corrosive acid from the cannon he was carrying into the Grand Destiny's face, and was thus thrown off balance long enough for Headcase to fire a shot from his regular blaster at point-blank range, knocking the Grand Destiny to the ground bellow.

Headcase was about to bring his scalpel-like sword down on Shinn once again, when Lunamaria suddenly raced in with the Pure Impulse's arm blasters firing as she shouted, "You get away from him, sicko!"

Headcase immediately jumped back before Luna had a chance to hit him with the Anti-Ship swords that she had pulled from the Pure Impulse's backpack, but Lunamaria was quick to recover from this small miss, and immediately fired a pair of blasts from the beam cannons that she had brought up to fire immediately after her swing had missed. The pair of blasts hit their mark easily enough, and Headcase was knocked down to the ground as well, while Shinn took the opportunity to wipe the corrosive acid off the Grand Destiny before it did any serious damage to his machine. Headcase looked between the two machines and upon registering that the two pilots were of different genders, he had to let a small, insane smile reach his face as he wondered aloud, "You are both very capable warriors indeed. I can only imagine that any offspring you bear will be as equally powerful with the right genetic combinations, and add in a small amount of genetics from say an Earth lion or even a bear, it would likely be a force to be reckoned with. I can barely stand the suspense of not having this hypothesis proven. I must run some tests at once using any genetic samples I can glean from these two."

"Okay, seriously, that is so wrong on so many levels," Shinn groaned in disgust.

"No kidding, this guy's insane," Lunamaria agreed as she and Shinn readied the Pure Impulse's beam cannons and the Grand Destiny's Ragnarok Cannon, firing both weapons at their maximum output on the psychotic Decepticon as soon as the weapons were readied. Their attacks were quickly followed up by a quick barrage from Crosshairs, effectively causing Headcase to nearly fall into stasis.

When Starscream noted how the two Coordinators had now dealt a series blow on Bloodsky, and that Athrun, Mu, Ultra Magnus, and Wheeljack seemed to be evenly matching the Predacon, he let out a small snarl before he jumped back to avoid a slash from the Strike Freedom's arm blade and transformed as he shouted, "Decepticons, retreat now! The mission has failed!"

Seeing no reason to argue with the Seeker, the other Decepticons were quick to follow his lead with the Aerialbots giving chase for as long as they could until the 'Cons were out of sight and out of range. "What was the point of attacking us like that," Athrun asked aloud. "It makes no sense."

"Agreed," Ultra Magnus said as he walked up to Athrun. "Perhaps they thought to demoralize both our forces and shake humanity's faith in us somehow."

"I doubt that," Kira immediately argued. "If that were the case, then they probably would've tried to take a stealth approach before attacking, but instead they just flew in towards us in broad daylight."

"Perhaps Galvatron wished to do as Ultra Magnus had suggested, or even had an ulterior motive behind this attack," Optimus then stated as everyone began to gather together. "But there is also a possibility that we have not yet considered as well."

"That being," Mu asked.

"That this was something that happened without Galvatron's knowledge," Optimus replied. "It has long been known that Starscream has secretly wished to assume control of the Decepticons, and after having that control in his grasp for a short amount of time, he may believe that it is his right to have it, or that having his power of command taken from him by Galvatron was a grave injustice against him."

"It is impossible to say anything on any reason at this time, and rather pointless to discuss it given the current situation we are in today," Ultra Magnus then told Optimus. "Since the crisis was averted, we should return to the fair as quickly as possible."

"Magnus is right," Athrun said. "If we're gone any longer, some people might start getting suspicious and begin asking questions. That alone could start a small panic, so if there isn't really any other reason for us to be here, we should get back as quickly as possible."

"Good call Athrun," Kira agreed, with Optimus and the others nodding in agreement as well soon after. Kira then turned the Strike Freedom towards the fairgrounds before he cried out, "Autobots, Gundam pilots, transform and roll out!"

The two teams immediately did as such, and began following Optimus and Kira back to the festival. As he flew after them, Shinn had to say, "You know for a minute there, I thought Kira was going to pull an Yzak and give a bad battle cry in one of many attempts to come up with a good one until he finally got it."

"He's actually been tossing some ideas around, but he wanted to find the best one before he made any attempts, and he told me that he was going to stick with the basic battle cry until he did," Athrun replied, seriously.

Everyone continued on in silence for a bit until Lunamaria finally said, "Hey, any of you guys ever notice how some of us are actually a lot like some of the Autobots?"

"What do you mean by that," Mu asked.

"Well take Athrun and Kira for example," Luna said as she looked at the two as they traveled alongside or above Optimus and Ultra Magnus. "I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that they're a lot like Optimus and Ultra Magnus in more ways than one."

"Huh. You know, I never thought about it before, but now that you mention it, they do seem pretty similar, at least attitude-wise," Shinn mused in reply.

Everyone had to have a small laugh in response to that after thinking about it for a minute, and they spent the rest of the trip back to the festival trying to figure out who among the pilots was most like who in comparison to the Autobots.

* * *

Starscream was not happy, to say the least. Not only did his secret attack on the Autobots fail, but somehow, Soundwave had found out and reported it to Galvatron, which resulted in the damage that the Seeker was now sporting as he walked to Headcase's lab. There was no way he was going to trust Shockwave or Knockout to do his repairs, so the obvious choice was to go to the only scientist/doctor in the Decepticons that was involved in his plans to dethrone Galvatron from his position as leader of the Decepticons. It was no surprise that Headcase would side with Starscream given that Galvatron held no interest in the science aspect of their struggles beyond what Shockwave brought to him, or if it held some other benefits, so naturally, Headcase's research into the potential of techno-organic soldiers was immediately shot down, leaving Starscream to pick up a doctor that he could easily trust.

"Well it really went about as well as expected I suppose," Starscream finally admitted to himself as he lay back on the medical bed so that Headcase could fix him up.

"Perhaps in the grand scheme of our efforts Lord Starscream," Headcase said as he finished buffing out the scratches and dents that the Seeker had suffered. "But I believe that I may have discovered something quite fascinating on this mission."

"First off, keep the 'Lord Starscream' bit to a minimum. You never know when that pest Soundwave is listening in," Starscream snapped. "Second off, what are you babbling on about?"

"The two humans I faced in battle today," Headcase replied. "They are both quite fascinating specimens, and I found my scientific curiosity peaked as I began to wonder what combining their DNA with that of another organic life form would result in. Quite the exciting thought, wouldn't you say?"

Starscream thought for a minute, trying to see if he remembered who the pilots of the two Gundams that Headcase had faced were, and the minute he remembered, he had to give a small smirk of agreement with the insane scientist's thoughts. Of course, while some may have believed that Headcase was insane, Starscream honestly believed that the scientist was rather brilliant, because as the old saying goes, the line between insanity and genius was very often blurred. "Perhaps we could look into acquiring a sample of their genetic make-up for you to analyze and experiment with in the near future. Just make sure that you remember where your allegiances lie, and I assure you, you're genius will never be forgotten my friend."

"But of course Lord Starscream," Headcase chuckled, soon breaking out into insane laughter along with Starscream. What neither of them realized was that the Predacon was watching them the entire time, and was making note of their interactions in a way that once again proved to be above that of a mindless beast. The bestial Cybertronian may not have understood the exact implications of what the two were saying, but from what it could understand, it seemed that the two were discussing something that was quite similar to his own creation, and that lead it to feel somehow threatened both for the safety of his kind and that of their master's, which led to the question of exactly who or what was his kind.

* * *

 ** _AN: So that's that. I know some of you will probably think this was a rare moment where I did a filler chapter, but a few things in here are there for a reason. One such case would be the mysterious locked functions of Luna and Athrun's Gundams. That will play a part in their adventures during the next major arc of the story, so keep an eye out for that. Another reason behind this chapter is to show some more things that have changed on Earth since the last story, and that was done both through the small mission that took place at the beginning of the chapter and the main story behind this chapter as a whole. Oh, and for those of you who got those little homages I put in there, props to ya._**

 ** _Kira: Hey lyoko, who the heck is that Headcase guy, cause I'm not seeing him anywhere I've looked on the Transformers wiki._**

 ** _AN: Excellent question. Headcase is another OC that was loaned for this story by the series long-time follower, "Many Faced Mage", so give a big shout to the guy everybody! I honestly hope I did a good job interpreting him in the way that Mage had in mind to be honest._**

 ** _Shinn: If the idea was to make him seem creepy and crazy, then in my opinion, you succeeded._**

 ** _Elita: Hey, what was with Feldt singing that song there earlier?_**

 ** _AN: Ah that. Well back in Destiny Sentinels, someone had messaged me the idea of having Feldt, or Meer as she was known as at the time, singing that song at some point in the story, and while I did like the idea after hearing the song myself, I never did get around to finding a moment to add it in, but when I got to this chapter, I found a point to do so. For those of you who don't know, it is actually one of the Japanese theme songs for Transformers Animated._**

 ** _Also, I hope you all notice that we now have the Star Force Strike among the ranks of the Transformer Gundams, and that I showed off a bit of the other new machines' armaments, but I'll get more into the specifics on each machine's later on in the story. Speaking of which, please don't get nervous if I don't post a new chapter for a while. I know a lot of you really like this story series, but a vast majority of the plot is original stuff that I'm coming up with for what would happen after the events of SEED Destiny as they were in Destiny Sentinels, and at the same time, I'm also trying to juggle between updating this story and a couple of my other stories at the same time, so don't be too surprised if I don't update all that often. It's not that I'm ditching the story, I'm just trying to give each of my main focus stories equal treatment. That said, if there's nothing else, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The Velocitron team experiences their first encounter with Ransack and his gang, which leads to a near street brawl that somehow becomes a race for supremacy between Hot Shot, Ransack, Smokescreen, and Dearka. After the experience, Bumblebee and Yzak now feel they have a decent idea of what to expect from their opponent, but the Decepticons may find a way to change those ideas. With the Ultimate Grand Race now beginning to start, just what sort of surprises and battles will our heroes be facing on Velocitron? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 7: At The Starting Line** ** _. Burn rubber and leave the others in the dust Autobots and Gundam!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	7. At The Starting Line

_**AN: And we are back for more in the epic of Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters! This chapter's going to have all sorts of first encounters for the characters and surprises that you may or may not be expecting, and the answer to a mystery that some of you have been wondering about for some time, while also leading into the next adventure that will unfold in the events to come.**_

 _ **Yzak: Can we just get on with it? No one is really going to care about all your babbling or even be able to make real sense of it until it gets to that point in the story, like how this chapter reveals that in the next chapter, the others will be...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]**_

 _ **Yzak: AGAIN?! [a strange mobile suit appears and tries to blast him into kingdom come with a blast of purple energy]**_

 _ **AN: Well I guess that's a bit of a spoiler, because you'll be seeing that particular mobile suit again later on in this chapter, so please enjoy what happens next.**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 7: At The Starting Line**

 **Location: Velocitron**

The greatest competitors in any competition will often train for hours on end, if not days, sometimes even without rest, but they must also acknowledge that spending so much time training can be just as much of a hindrance as it can be a benefit. Sometimes though, their coach, or even a very concerned teammate will need to give them a wake-up call of a reminder of this fact, and that is exactly what Clocker had to do for the Autobots who were going to be competing in the upcoming Ultimate Grand Race, so now, Hot Shot was leading Bumblebee and all the other Autobots and their human companions to one of Velocitron's hottest hangouts that was not a racetrack. "'Bots and humans, welcome to Pit Stop," Hot Shot announced as they reached their destination and assumed their respective bipedal modes. "The number one joint for hanging out with friends, checking out competition, and just having a good time as you cool your engines."

"From where I'm sitting, it looks an awful lot like a bar," Dearka commented from the cockpit of his mobile suit. "Also, remind me why we're here again? Specifically me, Yzak, and Nicol."

"Well if what Hot Shot's told us about this place is any indication, it's actually a bit of a custom for anyone competing in the Ultimate Grand Race, either as a racer or even as support crew to come here at least once before the big day," Bumblebee replied. "And that means we have a chance to check out this Ransack guy that we've been hearing so much about for ourselves."

"And by doing that, we'll be able to tell whether or not he would be a likely candidate for a Decepticon contact on Velocitron or not, and even if he isn't, we'll still know who to watch for when it comes to anything underhanded in the race," Yzak finished. He then smirked as he added, "Somehow I don't think that this is what Clocker had in mind when he told us all to take a break from working."

"Well, what he doesn't know, won't hurt him," Arcee replied with a smile.

"Hey, go easy on Clocker," Hot Shot immediately said in defense of their local friend. "He is just a kid, and he's not really used to how the Autobots do things in comparison to how things are normally done on Velocitron, so you can't really blame him for his concern."

"Yeah, we get that," Smokescreen assured Hot Shot as they all stepped up to the entrance. "But he didn't have to go all berserk on us like that. I swear, any angrier and it was like a younger, mech version of Chromia…uh, no offense Arcee."

"None taken," Arcee replied with a scowl at the memory of her traitorous sister. Bumblebee immediately saw the scowl forming, and quickly ushered everyone inside so that Arcee could get her processor off that matter before something or someone ended up getting broken.

When they stepped in, they immediately saw that Dearka was wrong to say that it was like a bar, because in all honesty, it seemed more like a club than anything else. They could see people laughing over a few drinks with friends, dancers grabbing the attention of the guests, the female ones doing so in ways that made Arcee feel disgusted while the three humans of their group were sure that they would feel their hormones flaring if the dancers were human, music not necessarily blaring, but definitely loud enough for one to raise their voice a bit to have a decent conversation, and everything else that any Earthling would likely expect from a Transformer style club. The minute the group stepped into the club, they noticed some people pausing in their partying before lighting up with excitement and cheers that were soon going around the club, among which Bumblebee and Yzak's group could hear the names of Hot Shot's team being shouted in what could only be described as a greeting for heroes.

"Hello Pit Stop," Hot Shot shouted in loud excitement as he spread his arms wide. "Autobots in the house!"

The cheers then increased in their magnitude, almost to the point where Smokescreen and Springer were covering their audio receptors due to how loudly the cheers now were. Eventually, the cheers did die down, and the Autobots and Gundams were allowed into the club, with the crowd even parting like the Red Sea for them as they walked in, aside from the few club visitors who came up to ask for an autograph from either Hot Shot or one of the other 'Bots that had been on Cybertron for so long. When they finally reached the bar, the bar tender immediately smiled at Hot Shot, and after hearing that Bumblebee and the rest of his group were very close friends of his, the bar tender was more than happy to grab some drinks for them all and put them on the house, except for the Gundams, who Hot Shot said had a low tolerance as a cover.

As the bar tender went to get their drinks, Bumblebee rested his elbow on the counter as he threw a smug look at his old friend as he observed aloud, "You guys certainly seem to be quite the celebrities. Care to share your secrets?"

"Anyone who's ever competed to the point of Override's level in the Ultimate Grand Race gets treated like this, except for 'Bots like Ransack of course, but there's also the added fact that we've constantly insisted we're from Cybertron, and unlike their leader, a lot of the Velocitronians are actually small believers in our world, so naturally, being among guys like us would be cause for such treatment," Hot Shot explained with a wide smile.

Bumblebee had to let out a small chuckle as he softly commented that some things never changed, a fact that he was specifically applying to Hot Shot, because he remembered that even when they were just sparklings, Hot Shot had a bit of a thing for being shown appreciation when others treated him in the way that the Velocitronians seemed to have been treating them as. The bar tender was just handing them their drinks when the doors suddenly burst opened and all manner of music, partying, and talk suddenly came to an immediate stop, drawing everyone's attention to who had just walked in.

The sight that greeted everyone's eyes and optics was of a small sized mech who's armor was mostly red, with silver shoulders, and a gold chest. On the outside of both his legs were what seemed to be two halves of a wheel, while a black visor was directly over his green optics. The way he and the almost faceless, yet imposing Bots that entered the club after him walked, implied that he thought he owned not only the establishment, but like he owned anything and everything that he set his sights on, if not everything on the planet, period. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that's Ransack," Nicol asked.

"Unfortunately," Sideswipe growled in confirmation.

"Yep, the ol' scumbag of the planet himself," Skids added. "Party always goes south the minute that fool shows his ugly mug."

Ransack's gaze soon fell on Hot Shot's group, and the Bot smirked cockily before striding over. "Whoa snap, he's coming over," Mudflap exclaimed. "Don't look directly into his eyes. Folks say you'll turn to rust if ya do."

"That's just some stupid rumor he started to make him seem intimidating, Mudflap," Hot Shot immediately shot down. "The only thing about his gaze that would be considered harmful would be how it changes when he starts looking at femme."

"Well he'd better watch that little tendency with me, or I'll be sure to tear his optics out," Arcee muttered, only getting a placating gesture from Bumblebee as he told her to stay calm.

Soon enough, Ransack was right in front of the group, his smirk never faltering once as his large stooges stayed around him like the mindless goons they were. "Well lookie here, boys," Ransack openly mocked. "The mighty Cybertronians, and Override's little bitches. What's the matter Lame Shot, Override kick you out of the house for the night?"

If that comment had so much as bristled Hot Shot, he did a very impressive job of hiding it, even as Ransack's goons laughed at their leader's comment. "Clever Ransack, if you were a sparkling. I wonder how disappointed your carrier is with your intelligence level, given how lacking it seems to be when it comes to something as simple as insults."

The Bots and Gundam pilots all smirked at Hot Shot's comeback, but it did not seem to get Ransack to falter in the slightest as he turned his gaze to Bumblebee and the others who had just arrived on the planet. "And who're these losers? More of your 'Cybertronian' friends, or just some suckers you convinced to believe that they were from that fairy tale world?"

That immediately got under Smokescreen's plating, and he was quick to stride right up before anyone could stop him. "First off, we _are_ Cybertronians, and secondly, you might want to watch your mouth, punk. You're dealing with a team of war heroes."

"Oh wow, war heroes," Ransack exclaimed in false excitement. "Well I'd better watch my step, I'd hate to deal with guys like that! Quick question, was that a pillow war or a playground war?"

Now Dearka was beginning to make an aggressive move on Ransack, but before he could, Yzak immediately managed to hold him back with a few words and a small look through their communication monitors. Hot Shot was also quick to pull Smokescreen back before something happened, quietly stating that they did not need to start causing any trouble like that before the Ultimate Grand Race as he did, before turning a glare to Ransack once again as he asked, "What're you doing here right now Ransack? We all know that you'd only come here to cause trouble before the race because you get some perverse pleasure out tormenting others."

Ransack smirked in Hot Shot's direction before he replied, "Well, I thought you'd like to know that there's been a small change in the race this year. Every racer is expected to compete in a team of three racers, and anyone who can't is going to be out of the running before the race even starts. Thought you should know about that so you can start looking for backup, especially since you'll need any help you can get."

Hot Shot immediately smirked before he jabbed back, "I'd take that advice for myself if I were you, Ransack. After all, no one on this planet is going to want to be on a team with you."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure of that. I've got a few aces up my servos this year that'll guarantee that I'll be the one standing in the winner's circle this year," Ransack chuckled in smug response. "Of course, if these guys are your teammates, then I'd say you're in trouble, especially if they race as badly as they look. Are those guys with the matching helmets supposed to look intimidating with all those big, fancy weapons that they're trying to show off, or are they actually supposed to be that cute."

"Okay, that's it," Dearka shouted as he immediately gunned his controls towards Ransack before anyone could stop him. The next thing anyone knew, the Verde Buster had socked Ransack right in his face, leading the obvious two-wheeler Bot's goons to start advancing to return the attack back at the long range specialized Gundam. Smokescreen was quick to respond when it seemed that a few were about to get the drop on his friend, with the Nero Blitz and Springer soon following after them, and in no time at all after that, the entirety of the club was in the midst of an all-out bar fight.

No one was quite sure when it happened, but at some point during the fight, Ransack had ended up outside with Smokescreen and Dearka, and the three had somehow managed to end up in a full on race in what could only be described as a way to prove who was the better racer. When Hot Shot noticed, he quickly informed Bumblebee of what had happened and that he was going after them before assuming his alt mode and racing off after them. All that really mattered after that point was that things had quickly escalated to being completely out of hand until Bumblebee and Yzak had managed to calm everyone down enough for the brawl to come to an end before deciding to give their people a lecture on their conduct as soon as they had met up with them.

* * *

If Dearka was being honest with himself, he was not entirely sure what possessed him to try and take on Ransack in a race, even with Smokescreen's help, and yet here he was, racing against the red and yellow two-wheeler alongside Smokescreen, in the Verde Buster's vehicle mode. In all honesty, if he were thinking straight in the first place, he would not have done this for many reasons at all, the most prominent being that the Verde Buster's vehicle mode was not really much of a racing vehicle, as evidenced by the fact that he was lucky enough to keep pace with either of the two Bots ahead of him, but Dearka was not thinking straight, and all he really cared about was showing up that smug bastard who had dared to insult his friends and his machine.

They had just come out of an extremely tight, hairpin turn when the sound of a fourth engine reached their ears, and upon checking his rear view camera, Dearka immediately spotted Hot Shot racing towards them at his full throttle. As soon as the blue and yellow car that was Hot Shot's vehicle mode had pulled up between Smokescreen and Dearka, the Bot immediately shouted, "Are you two crazy?! You've gotta stop this race right now! With it being so close to the Ultimate Grand Race, all other official racing outside of practices are forbidden, and if anyone catches you doing this, then you'll be out of the running, and make no mistake, Ransack will think of a way to extend the courtesy to all of us!"

"Ah lighten up, Lame Shot," Ransack shouted. "Haven't you heard that rules were made to be broken? If they wanna get creamed so bad, I'll be more than happy to oblige."

"You're the only one getting creamed, ya creep," Smokescreen shouted, and before anyone could stop him, Smokescreen had immediately put metal to the pedal before he blasted up to the point of running right alongside Ransack. Dearka and Hot Shot immediately began to try and catch up with him, but when Dearka saw that the road led to a ramp that was a fair distance between the end of it and the adjacent road, he immediately pulled back on his controls and brought the Verde Buster to a hard, screeching stop, just barely coming to a full halt as his machine reached the edge of the road. Ransack and Smokescreen on the other hand did no such thing, and instead blasted off the ramp and into the air, much to Hot Shot and Dearka's horror.

Everything seemed to slow down for a minute as the two sailed through the air, while the two observers could only look on with baited breath, hoping against hope that their friend would be okay, and for a minute it seemed that Smokescreen would make it, but just as he was coming down, something suddenly hit him in the side, throwing him off course, and he was thus unable to do anything to avoid crashing into the wall, getting flipped into the air upon impact, and then crashing across the ground multiple times before he finally transformed into robot mode and skidded to a stop on the desert ground bellow. Smokescreen could only pound his fist into the dirt in frustration as he was forced to listen to Ransack laugh at him from the road above.

Dearka was quick to transform the Verde Buster to Gundam mode before jumping down to his friend to make sure that Smokescreen was okay, but he still had a sour look on his face when he heard Ransack shout, "Is this really supposed to be your newest help, Lame Shot? They won't even make it through the first leg!"

Hot Shot only glared up at Ransack as he drove away before he glanced over his shoulder to see Bumblebee and the Blu Duel approaching quickly with Springer already transforming into his helicopter mode to give Dearka and Smokescreen a lift back up to the road. While he may not have been able to see Yzak's face, if it was anything like Bumblebee's face was at the moment, Hot Shot could tell that Dearka and Smokescreen were most definitely about to get a serious lecture, but at the same time, he knew that they would have to do so as they went, because there was something that they needed to deal with now.

* * *

"What the hell were you thinking," Yzak demanded of his blonde best friend as the Autobots and Gundam pilots raced along the highway of Velocitron behind Hot Shot as he lead them to their next destination after both the brawl and the race had effectively ended. "Not only did you start an unnecessary fight with an alien life form, and an entire bar fight, but you also risked exposing us pilots as being humans inside of mobile suits instead of Transformers! Do you have any idea what I'll have to do now when I am forced to report this to Earth?!"

"Alright, Yzak, I get it," Dearka moaned as he accelerated the Verde Buster's Security Vehicle form forward in an attempt to put some distance between himself and his nagging best friend, who had constantly repeated his same arguments multiple times over and over since they had met up after the race with Ransack. "But you can't honestly tell me that you weren't two seconds away from putting a beam blast through his smug face."

"That's not the point, Dearka," Yzak snapped. "We're guests on an alien world, and that means that we can't take any risks doing things without knowing exactly what the consequences would be. We should be lucky that they won't kick us out of the race before it even starts."

"Alright Yzak, I'm sure that they get your point," Bumblebee finally intervened in an attempt to placate the arguing pilots. "You're both right in some way, but there was definitely a better way to deal with that than what you did, Dearka. Next time, just let his insults and harsh words flow over you like a river over a stone."

"Did you get that from a movie or something," Smokescreen asked.

"I might've, but that doesn't make it any less true," Bumblebee admitted without a trace of sheepishness or shame. "So, where are we going anyways, Hot Shot?"

"Override's place," Hot Shot immediately replied. "This is the first time that I've ever known for the Ultimate Grand Race to be a team race that is assuming Ransack is to believed in his claims that it is, and that will be a problem for Override."

"Why's that," Nicol asked from the Nero Blitz's SUV mode as he pulled up alongside Springer.

"In all the races she's ever been in, Override has never _once_ competed in a team race," Hot Shot explained. "She believes that a true victory in a race should be won by your own efforts, not those of others, and being on a team in a race any further than necessary is something that she does not enjoy, to the point that it's a matter of pride for her."

"I did kind of get that impression from her when we raced against her after we first met," Jazz admitted just as a large complex came into view. From the outside, it seemed like the building was the size of a small Cybertronian mansion, and they could already hear the sounds of a roaring engine that indicated that Override was practicing for the race. After entering the building through an entrance that lead directly to the roadway, Hot Shot quickly led them to what he claimed was Override's favorite practice course in the complex, and when they saw that she was in fact there, Bumblebee was quick to smirk at what this implied about Hot Shot's relationship with Override.

It was that same implication which Arcee was quick to act on as she lightly teased, "You seem to know a pretty decent deal about Override's home, Hot Shot. Have you been invited to spend the night really often or something?"

Hot Shot did not dignify Arcee's question with an answer beyond the light blush he gained, and simply transformed to his bipedal mode, with the others doing the same soon after, and then moved to stand off to the side as they waited for Override to finish her practice run. They did not have to wait long, as Override had quickly noticed their arrival, or more than likely noticed Hot Shot's arrival, and screeched to a stop as she transformed as well. She then strode over to them with a half-smile as she stated, "Well, it's not every day that you come here with guests, Slick, or even so many of them for that matter. What's the story on this?"

"We just had a run-in with Ransack," Hot Shot immediately replied. As soon as she heard the name, Override's face immediately fell into slight irritation, and that irritation seemed to increase as Hot Shot concluded his explanation. "He told us that the Ultimate Grand Race was going to be team race this year. I wanted to know if that was true."

"Unfortunately, yes it is," Override admitted as she turned away, clearly trying to hide her irritation at the fact. "I am glad that this means Ransack will likely be forced to drop from the races, given that no one in their right mind would race with him as a teammate, but it also means that I'll likely have to do the same as well. There's no way I can participate in a team race like this."

"Why's that," Bumblebee asked. "I mean, if you're as good a leader as Hot Shot has indicated you to be, then you should have no trouble finding a few good teammates."

"Shows what you know, newcomer," Override immediately scoffed. "Despite what you may think, people don't ask to be on a team with me because nearly everyone on this planet knows that I prefer to race alone, and would rather not race at all than be on a team of racers."

"Well if you want to stay as leader of Velocitron, then it looks like you're going to have to this time," Springer pointed out, but it seemed that Override was going to be just as stubborn about budging on this as she was on her opinion of the true existence of Cybertron.

Of course, Hot Shot saw something different than the others. While the others saw Override being stubborn on her standpoint, he saw that she was actually afraid that her belief that no one would race with her was actually true. That was all the reason he needed to say what he did next. "You're wrong about one thing Override. There is at least one Bot that would race alongside you on a team, and I would be honored if you let me."

Override and the others all immediately spun to face Hot Shot in surprise at his claim, truly not expecting him to say that. Sure, everyone of the Autobots and Gundam pilots had a hunch that Hot Shot liked Override a lot, but to see him go this far just so the femme could compete in her planet's competition that decided the leader of the planet was something in and of itself, and it was clear that Override herself was not expecting that at all. "Slick, you can't be serious," Override protested. "I mean, you're the one Bot on this whole planet that's been my biggest competition in a race, and you seriously expect me to believe that you'd willingly be on a team with me."

"Hey, Velocitron needs you to be its leader Override, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that you stay as its leader, and Ransack never gets the job," Hot Shot immediately replied.

Override immediately smiled at Hot Shot's response, now knowing for a fact that he was not just messing around, and then just nodded her head as she said, "Okay then, but even if that is the case, two racers to a team isn't enough. The minimum requirement is three racers, so there's still not much chance of us getting in on the race, unless all of you suddenly want to be on a team with me."

"I don't know about all of us, but I know that I want in," Jazz said. "I may want a rematch sometime, but I'd rather it not be in this race where winning would mean that I'd have to take away your job."

Override nodded in thanks to Jazz for his offer, and was about to say that they should start getting ready when Smokescreen suddenly stepped forward, looking like there was something on his mind that he needed to say. "Guys, I know I was wrong to go and race Ransack like that, but there's something you should know," the young Autobot said. "When I made that jump, I know for a fact that I would've been able to make it, but then something hit me and threw me off, and I'd bet every last drop of energon in my body that it was a shot from a sniper rifle."

"That's a pretty bold accusation to make, kid," Override told Smokescreen. "Some people on Velocitron may carry weapons, but they're only supposed to use them as a last resort. Ransack may ignore that rule from time to time, but when it comes to races, a place where weapons are not allowed no matter what kind of race it is, he would never allow something like that to happen."

"I know, but I'm telling you, somebody definitely took a shot at me with a sniper," Smokescreen insisted.

"He's right," Dearka stated as he suddenly climbed out of his Gundam, surprising Override the minute he did. "I saw the blast hit him, and it was just small enough for anyone who didn't specialize in long range combat and weaponry to have missed it."

"If that is the case, then this race may be facing more problems than we thought," Bumblebee stated aloud. "Either that, or the 'Cons are already here and have formed an alliance with Ransack without our knowing. If that is the case, we'll need to be ready for anything. Smokescreen, you'll be on a racing team with me and Sideswipe in the race while the rest of you keep your optics tuned to anything out of the ordinary along with Clocker."

"Understood sir," Yzak replied as he stepped out of his Gundam along with Nicol to give Bumblebee a quick salute along with the other Autobots.

It was at that moment that Override finally stepped back into the conversation as she said, "Okay, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you guys are willing to go so far to keep the race and my planet safe, even if I still don't believe your claims about Decepticons and being from Cybertron, but just one thing real quick." She then pointed at the three humans and exclaimed, "What in the name of the speed way are those things?"

Hot Shot sighed before he placed a hand on Override's shoulder and said, "You might want to sit down, Override. This is going to be a very long story."

* * *

In another area of the racing planet, Ransack had just pulled into his own personal hangout and assumed his robot mode before turning his optics to the shadows, and then smirking when he saw what was lurking there. "Well I held my end of the deal; I showed you that some of those Autobots are here on Velocitron, so I hope you'll let me borrow some of your guys for the Ultimate Grand Race," Ransack stated. "And they'd better be the fastest and best racers you've got."

A minute after Ransack said that, Galvatron stepped out of the shadows along with Starscream, Knockout, and Quicksilver, and then grinned as he stated, "You have indeed done well, Ransack, and I shall allow you to have Knockout and Quicksilver here be your teammates for this race of yours. However, I will also require you to provide us with any information you can obtain on the location of the Dark Energon reservoir if you wish to keep them on your team until the end of the competition."

Quicksilver had wanted to protest against this when he first heard that he was to be offered as a bargaining chip for the Velocitronian's services, but when Starscream had informed him that they needed to do so in order to keep any suspicion of conspiring against Galvatron off of them, he had immediately caved and agreed to do as asked. Knockout had been much easier to convince though, since he actually enjoyed racing so much, having done a fair share of it in his time on Earth in the past, usually without anyone ever knowing, but it seemed that Ransack was not all that eager to agree on this latest addition to the agreement. "Hold up there, space man! I never said anything about helping you find some Dark Energon thing, and I'm not letting you add on to this deal anymore than you already have," Ransack shouted in protest.

"You seem to forget that you stand to lose much more than I do if you back out of this deal of ours, Ransack," Galvatron snarled as a Dark Energon infused hand suddenly gripped Ransack's shoulder, causing the two-wheeler to fall to his knees in sudden pain. A minute later, Le Creuset stepped forward with a new mobile suit stepping into the light just behind him. The machine itself held a slight resemblance to the masked madman's Advocate Gundam, but it was much smaller and seemed to be like a mass produce version of the mobile suit, much like how the Strike Daggers were a mass produced version of the original Strike Gundam. The machine had a Zaku style head and a circular backpack like the Advocate's, but the most significant feature was that its color scheme was a deep purple that matched the usual color of the Decepticon emblem, and crimson red, with sickly, green outlines running all throughout the machine, and similarly colored eyes.

As Ransack continued to writhe in pain at the hands of the recently appeared mobile suit, Galvatron walked up and stated, "You work for me now, because without me, you have no chance of competing in your precious race, and therefore, you have no chance of securing leadership of your planet for yourself other than through brute force, an effort that you also cannot carry out without my help as well. Are we clear?"

"Y-yeah, yeah, I get it, just make it stop," Ransack immediately pleaded.

Galvatron nodded to the new mobile suit, and the machine immediately released Ransack, allowing the Bot who was now clearly an honorary Decepticon to breathe easily again and stand up straight. Satisfied with his work, Galvatron decided that it was time he, Starscream, Le Creuset, and the mystery mobile suit took their leave, and soon vanished into a Space Bridge. Upon exiting the Space Bridge, they immediately found themselves in the hangar of the Decepticons' base on Planet Chaar, and that was when Galvatron decided to turn his attention to Le Creuset as he asked, "I take it that the new machine is to your satisfaction?"

Le Creuset nodded as he replied, "This new HorseMan mobile suit, as Shockwave had dubbed it, has now proven beyond a doubt that it will be just what I require for my side of this war that we are now in the midst of. My only concern now is the issue of the pilots."

"I think you'll find that already taken care of, given who was piloting it just now," Galvatron stated as a figure began to climb out of the machine. Said figure simply lowered itself to the ground before approaching Le Creuset and removing its helmet to reveal the face of a young woman with shoulder length, brunette hair that was a complete mess despite the fact that it still seemed neat enough to reach her shoulders as it normally would, what appeared to be scars littered across her face, which glowed with the eerie, evil purple of Dark Energon, and diamond green eyes that were almost completely overshadowed by the same purple glow.

When Le Creuset laid his eyes upon this woman, he immediately recognized her and smirked with eagerness as he stated, "Well, now this is certainly interesting. I can't wait to see what others there will be like her, but I wonder if it will be enough."

"If not, then we have other methods as well, as you so kindly provided," Galvatron stated as he showed Le Creuset a video image of Shockwave's lab, which showed all who could see it an image of many different cloning pods like the ones that were being used to create the new Predacons, only they were much smaller, and each contained a human male that bore a striking resemblance to Le Creuset.

"Now that is most definitely a grand reassurance," Le Creuset stated as he turned to the woman that had just climbed out of the new mobile suit. "Wouldn't you agree, dear Jaylen Westenfluss?"

The figure that Le Creuset had now identified as Jaylen could only look between the image and Le Creuset before she released a loud shriek that did not sound even remotely human or Cybertronian, but rather as something that was more akin to that of a terrible monster, and it was something that only brought dark, sinister smirks to both Galvatron and Le Creuset's faces, while bringing a look of pure revulsion to Starscream's.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

It was now the day of the Ultimate Grand Race on Velocitron, and as he watched the video feed of the race that Nicol was able to send to the New Iacon Base from both his mobile suit and the spy camera from the team's ship, Kira could only feel his apprehension growing as the racers began to line up. When he spotted both Override and Bumblebee's teams pulling up to their positions, Kira had to give a small prayer for both groups in the hopes that everyone would be alright, and that things would work out the way they wanted them to. His prayers immediately ceased when he spotted a familiar looking motorcycle and red sports car pulling up to the starting line with Ransack, and he immediately called everyone's attention to the screen.

"What's wrong Kira," Ironhide asked.

"Just look at who some their competition is," Kira said as he indicated the two vehicles he recognized. "It's Knockout and Quicksilver!"

"What're those lousy 'Cons doing there," Athrun demanded in anger when he and the others saw them. "Did the 'Cons somehow make contact with one of the locals without our guys ever noticing?"

"It would certainly seem that way, Major Zala," Ultra Magnus replied, once again showing that he was still not used to addressing any of the humans who held a rank by their regular names as he did.

"We should send a team to detain them at once," Strongarm suggested as she began to move to a nearby weapons locker.

"No, even if we could get there before this race started, we'd just be imposing our will and beliefs on an alien world," Ultra Magnus protested. "For all the Velocitronians know, the two are simply fellow citizens of their world that Ransack had managed to convince into joining him. We shall simply have to allow Bumblebee and his team to manage on their own."

While everyone did not like the fact, they had to admit that Ultra Magnus was right. Even with the Space Bridge, there would be no possible chance that they would be able to reach the planet in time to capture the two 'Cons, and even if that were not the case, they would likely be seen as hostile invaders trying to capture some of their citizens. They had no other choice than to do as Magnus said, and leave matters to Bumblebee and Yzak's teams.

Thankfully, they soon found that they were about to acquire something else to do in order to help deal with the Decepticon threat in another way, as the alarms in the base began blaring. "Autobots, I've decoded the second set of coordinates for a colony world that we require," Optimus announced, having sounded the alarm to gain everyone's attention. "We must have a ship and a team deploy there at once!"

"Are you sure that it's a good idea to send more of our forces away from Earth like that," Kira asked. "We're already a bit shorthanded with Bumblebee's team off on Velocitron, so wouldn't it be better to wait until they get back before sending anyone else off to another world that we know nothing about?"

"Normally, I would agree with you Kira, but in this instance, time is of the essence," Optimus replied. "We cannot risk letting Galvatron and his forces getting there ahead of us, because if we do allow that to happen, then we run a greater risk of them unleashing the terrible powers of that world's Dark Energon reservoir before we can stop them."

Kira had to pause for a moment before he finally relented and agreed, saying that he would assemble a team based on who now had a Transformer Gundam that was ready for action after Optimus decided who among the Autobots would be going. That left only one question to be answered. "What's this world that the team will be going to," Kira asked the last Prime.

"It is the planet known as…Junkion."

* * *

 ** _AN: And that's a wrap for now, and next time you'll be seeing the next world our heroes visit in this story, the planet Junkion, and the beginning of a race that you could only expect from Transformers or Hot Wheels. I've had some people comment on how there was not much of a human element in the battles in this story so far, and the reason for that is because...well let's face it, so far there's only been one human on the bad guys' side, and that was Rau Le Creuset. Ya can't really do much with just one guy as the bad guy, otherwise things get really lame and boring, and that is why I decided to up the ante on things and reveal something that you had some foreshadowing to in Destiny Sentinels by showing that Jaylen Westenfluss, who you may or may not remember from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime, is now back from the dead as a human version of the Zombie-Cons. Yes, she was brought back as such a creature using Dark Energon, and yes, there will be others like Jaylen, but more importantly, is that Rau will soon have some more expendable soldiers in the form of other clones of him and, by extension, Rey._**

 ** _The reason behind the HorseMan mobile suit is to give Rau's forces a mass produced mobile suit that was like the Strike Daggers, but if you need a better example, then think of it as this continuity's version of the Mass Production Quebley from Gundam ZZ, and as for the name, its basically from the Horsemen of Apocalypse, so yeah, I'm kinda establishing a theme here with the human side of the bad guys, huh?_**

 ** _Athrun: Is that whole thing with Jaylen only going to apply to human pilots, and will it always be pilots that we know?_**

 ** _AN: In order, no and yes, for the most part. You'll be seeing some Dead 'Cons back from the dead as Zombie-Cons along with those pilots, and if you need an idea of which characters will be making a zombified comeback, you need only look back at who has died over the course of this story series, and even in the course of the Cosmic Era as well. Now if that's all said and done, Onto the preview!..._**

 ** _As the first leg of the Ultimate Grand Race begins on Velocitron, a second team arrives on Junkion, and is soon baffled by the strange ways of the planet's locals. While the Junkions may be strange in a way, they do not have a problem with the Decepticons as of yet, but they do have another problem that could be just as serious. Can the Autobots provide this planet made of garbage with the assistance that it needs, or more importantly, can they truly trust the strange individual that the Autobot Earth Division has had past experience with? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 8: Trouble on the Junk Planet** ** _. Prepare for the unexpected on this second new world Gundam and Autobots!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	8. Trouble on the Junk Planet

_**AN: Hey everybody! I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!**_

 _ **Cagalli: Took you long enough! [gets whapped in the head by AN] Ow!**_

 _ **AN: Hey, you let me lose interest in writing this story! That is major driving force for writing this story, along with reviews of story. You want unfinished story, no? Then don't let lyokoMARVELanime lose interest in writing it!**_

 _ **Shinn: Why are you talking like an old Chinese guy?**_

 _ **AN: Spent a lot of time watching Jackie Chan adventures recently, and talking like Uncle is fun. One more thing, another reason why this took so long to write was because I felt the need to go back and re-read some of the stories in this series myself, just to be certain that I did not accidentally miss something somewhere down the line.**_

 _ **Dearka: Well I just hope we're going to be a bit closer to the moment when the Autobots have to...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [Pulls a lever and large boom sounds as Dearka is covered in thick, green cloud]**_

 _ **Cagalli: Aw man, [waves hand in front of her face like she smells something horrible, and she is] What the hell is that stench?**_

 _ **Shinn: Seriously, some of the places the**_ **Minerva _visited during the days of SEED Destiny smelled better than that._**

 ** _AN: My bad, I forgot how bad of a stink bomb that...Neeeh [cringes along with Shinn and Cagalli when they see Dearka]_**

 ** _Dearka: What? What is it?_**

 ** _AN: Nothing...D-don't look in the mirror._**

 ** _Dearka: Why? [looks in the mirror and sees he has lizard skin] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_**

 ** _AN: I told you not to look in the mirror!_**

 ** _Dearka: I am lizard! I have become a lizard man pilot! [gets whapped in the head by AN] Ow!_**

 ** _AN: [Peals off some of the lizard skin to reveal regular skin underneath] See? Lizards shed their skin. No problem_**

 ** _Kira: Was it supposed to do that, though?_**

 ** _AN: No. I'm honestly not sure what it's supposed to do. Axel from Kingdom Hearts came up with it over in my Keyblades of Future Past story, and apparently he still hasn't worked out all the bugs. All I know is that it's supposed to have that nasty stink bomb._**

 ** _Cagalli: Yeah I think that was more punishment for us than it was for him._**

 ** _AN: Well, I did say that not all the bugs had been worked out yet. Now with that done, and while Dearka finishes getting cleaned up, let's roll out!_**

 ** _As it has been stated before, new Transformers that are officially appearing or getting mentioned for the first time in this story series will have their names in bold._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Trouble on the Junk Planet**

 **Location: Earth**

It was only mere hours after Optimus had decoded the coordinates of Junkion that the team that had been chosen to be sent there was ready, and said team was now heading out in just a few minutes. Given that they did not wish to hamper their strength too much, Optimus had decided to send Ultra Magnus, Hound, Crosshairs, and Bulkhead to Junkion, having Ironhide take over as commander of the Earth Division, while Kira elected to send Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey, and Waltfeld, who's Gaia was now ready for action with its fully installed Artificial T-Cog from the Gundam team, with Waltfeld being put in charge as the leader of the pilots for the mission. Some were a bit skeptical about sending Waltfeld out since his Gaia had just recently been fully completed, but since Kira was the one who had selected him none of them were going to argue, especially after they remembered the commander's track record as a leader in the previous wars. With the team members selected and the ship nearing its final stage of launch preparations, all that was left was for everyone who was both necessary and able to report in so that the team could be seen off. Kira and Athrun were actually just heading into the control room for the launch center at the moment, and as they walked through the hallways, the two had taken the opportunity to discuss something of very great importance.

"Okay so, how about this one: Gundam pilots, load up and launch," Kira asked his childhood friend as he read off the small list he was holding.

Athrun barely stopped the small cringe he felt coming on before he shook his head and replied, "Nope, not that one."

"Okay, how about this," Kira then asked as he looked back at the list and cleared his throat. "Let's crush some 'Cons!"

Athrun waved one hand side-to-side on that one while saying, "Not bad, but it's a little too geared towards a certain group, and you'll probably want something that can be used in a general sense like how Optimus says 'Transform and roll out' or Bumblebee when he says, 'rev up and roll out'."

Kira had to nod in agreement with that one, mentally reminding himself that he knew that one was a bad idea before looking back to his list again. "Maximum Velocity!"

Athrun had to pause and think on that one for a bit before finally saying, "Not bad, but you could probably do better. Still, that's a good backup."

Kira shrugged in response before taking out a pen and writing a small question mark next to the catchphrase before moving on to the next one. "Transform and take off?" This time Athrun did cringe a little before shaking his head no, prompting Kira to cross that idea off the list in addition to the others he had already crossed out. "Soar into action," Kira then asked.

"Have you been hanging out with Yzak, cause that sounds a lot like that first one Shinn and the others told me he tried during the Battle of Heaven's Base," Athrun immediately pointed out.

"Well I thought was okay," Kira muttered under his breath as he crossed the idea off all the same.

Kira was about to ask about his next idea when Athrun cut him off to ask, "Kira, why exactly are you asking me to help with the ideas for your personal battle cry? Wouldn't it make sense to have Optimus, or even Lacus or Cagalli help you out?"

"First off, because you're my best friend who's known me since childhood, so I know you'll be honest with me for each idea I come up with," Kira reminded his friend. "Secondly, I would've asked Bumblebee, but he's currently on Velocitron and working on a mission so I can't just call him up and ask for help, and I definitely don't want to ask Yzak given how many failed attempts he's had so far. Thirdly, Lacus already has enough to deal with as leader of the PLANT Supreme Council and as a world leader, so I don't want to bother her with something so trivial in comparison, and the same reason partially applies to Cagalli. Besides, after what happened when Yzak went to ask Cagalli for a bit of help on finding himself a battle cry, I wouldn't even want to consider asking her for help on mine, would you?"

Both boys had to shiver at said memory when Kira brought it up, as it was a moment that even Grimlock was a bit scared of Cagalli, and that was definitely saying something. Knowing all this, Athrun conceded Kira's point and allowed him to continue until they finally reached the control room, where they found Erica and Banagher already at the controls along with one other person that they did not recognize. The man in question had average length, dark brown hair, and lightly tanned skin, and was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a sleeveless, red vest with a pair of glasses adorning his face. Kira was only able to get a quick glimpse of the man's nametag to see that this person's name was Dave before he brought his attention to the large ship before them.

Their attention was then brought to the sound of soft grumbling from another corner of the room, in which they quickly found one Mayu Asuka with her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face as she grumbled, "Never lets me go to Cybertron, doesn't let me go to Velocitron, doesn't even let me go to another planet when he's going to it to."

Kira and Athrun immediately exchanged an amused smile between them before Kira walked over and placed a hand on the younger Asuka sibling's shoulder as he said, "It's tough dealing with an overprotective sibling, huh?"

"Not that you would know, seeing as you _are_ the overprotective sibling even though you're not the older one," Athrun teasingly told Kira in playful reminder.

"Hey! We've never actually confirmed that Cagalli's the older one of the two of us, and I am not that bad," Kira immediately retorted, but he had to give a small smile when he noticed Mayu starting to smile and giggle a bit out of the corner of his eye, just as he and Athrun had planned when they started their little bit of brotherly arguing.

"Hey, if you guys are done exchanging grievances of not being an only child, we've got a ship to launch," Banagher then called out, reminding everyone that it was time to get the show on the road. As soon as everyone went quiet, the brown haired boy turned his attention back to the console in front of him and called out, " _Orion_ , this is the control room. Status report."

 _"_ Orion _here, all systems and personnel report ready for lift off. Awaiting your signal to begin launch sequence,"_ Ultra Magnus's voice replied over the radio.

"Copy that, Ultra Magnus," Kira said into the headset he had just finished placing on his head. "Remember team, we need to do whatever we can to establish friendly relationships with the Junkions so that we can properly prepare them for the Decepticons' attack, so try to avoid doing anything reckless or foolish if you can. I'm talking to you guys specifically, Shinn and Hound."

 _"_ _Oh haha, very funny, Kira,"_ Shinn retorted. _"Just do me a favor and make sure my sister doesn't do anything crazy like run through a Ground Bridge that leads into a battle while I'm gone, will ya?"_

"Sheesh, I end up caught in the crossfire of a huge battle because I wanted to get some pictures of the Autobots in action one time, and he just can't let it go," Mayu muttered as she crossed her arms once again and immediately started to pout a little, much to everyone's amusement.

Banagher then brought the attitude back to a serious level as he looked to the man Kira had noticed a minute after he and Athrun walked in and asked, "How're things looking over there, Dave?"

"All systems go," Dave reported with a smile and a quick salute. "All launch systems ready and coming fully online now." A minute later, the launch bay opened up and the launch track connected to the main track of the Mass Accelerator. "We're clear to launch," Dave then reported to both the control room and the crew on the _Orion_. "Greatest of luck brave heroes."

Banagher rolled his eyes at his co-worker's need to say such lines when his job was finished, and just tapped the control to begin the countdown to launch as he announced, "Launch in t-minus eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…Launch!"

The minute Banagher had said the last word, the ship had started being catapulted up the Mass Accelerator track and into the sky where the Space Bridge was already beginning to open up to coordinates of Junkion. A minute later, the ship had cleared the atmosphere and successfully made its way through the Space Bridge, much to everyone's joy. Seeing that their work there was now done, Kira turned to Athrun to ask about his opinion on the next battle cry he had come up with, only to find that Athrun had already left the room. It did not take long for Kira to catch up with his friend and he then asked, "Say by the way, do you know who that guy, Dave is?"

"He's one of the human technicians that help out here at the Autobot Earth Division's base. From what I've heard he's been one of the Autobots' strongest supporters for years now, but to be honest, there's just something about him that kind of unnerves me for some reason," Athrun informed his friend.

"What, like you think he's not a good guy or something," Kira asked.

"No it's not that," Athrun immediately dismissed. "He's definitely a good guy from what I've heard about him and the other technicians that work here. It's more of a feeling that I should know him for some weird reason or something."

Kira had to admit that he was getting a similar impression, but in the end he and Athrun both shrugged it off and then immediately returned to helping the Gundam team's leader settle on a battle cry. Kira knew that he did not have a lot of time to hang out with Athrun before they had to split up for the day, so he was intent on getting as much help on this from his childhood friend as he could. "Okay, so how about…Transform and blast off!"

"You are kidding me, right," Athrun asked with an eyebrow raised, clearly asking if Kira seriously thought that one was a good idea at some point.

* * *

 **Location: Velocitron**

"No, I'm not kidding, and stop looking at me like that," Yzak replied to Nicol as he conferred with his green haired friend about the exact same battle cry that Kira had asked Athrun about.

Nicol just sighed and shook his head as he asked, "Yzak, why are you even bothering to come up with a battle cry at this point? I mean, it's not like you're ever really going to get a chance to use it all that often."

"Well then Optimus and Bumblebee shouldn't have made it a trend when they both got their own catchphrases," Yzak retorted with a huff. "Alright, alright, what about Transform and slash in?"

"Eeeh," Nicol said with a small wave of his hand.

"Screw you, I'm keeping that one," Yzak retorted as he brought his attention back to the monitor in the Blu Duel that he was using to keep track of their teammates who were now blazing down the track in the Ultimate Grand Race. It was only mere seconds after the starting signal had sounded, and already Override had taken a strong lead with Hot Shot and Jazz right behind her, while Bumblebee's team was just a few feet behind them. In all honesty, it worried him a bit that Ransack's teammates were some of the 'Cons, but he was able to keep enough of a cool head in order to stop both himself and any of their teammates from racing out there and doing something that would have gone against their efforts in getting the Velocitronians to trust them. Still, the fact that Ransack's team was not doing all that much to overtake the 'Bots.

"Hey Springer, how do things look from your position," Yzak then asked the already airborne triple-changer as Springer swooped over the race track from overhead.

"Nothing to report here, Yzak," Springer replied. "I'm a little worried about how Ransack and those two 'Cons with him haven't done anything yet though."

"You're not the only one," Yzak admitted. "Clocker, Arcee, how're things from your end?"

"Nothing to report from here," Arcee replied as she raced along the large expanse of roads and desert that had not been closed off for the race with Dearka and Mudflap. "I still say we should be back at the pit stop with the others in case the 'Cons try something there instead of looking for the Dark Energon pocket out here since we have no idea where to even start looking."

"I know Arcee, but now that the 'Cons are here, we're even more pressed for time in securing the thing before they can," Yzak replied. "There's no telling how it will affect Velocitron if they're able to unleash it, so we can't take any chances of that happening. Besides, just be glad that you have some clue as to where you should look since Clocker gave you that list of places on the planet that had been around for years."

"Whatever you say, kid," Arcee huffed in reply before she accelerated forwards a little with the Verde Buster and the red colored twin right behind her.

What she did not know was that while Dearka was scanning for anything that would indicate signs of a Dark Energon pocket, he was also doing something that was a little more personal, but still just as important, at least for him. "I'm telling you Mir, it's seriously crazy," the blonde said to his girlfriend over the video phone in his suit. "Every time I look at the race going on, I feel like I'm watching one of the races in some of those old Hot Wheels movies. All the hairpin turns, giant loops, and god only knows what else just gets my adrenaline pumping just from watching our guys go at it, and that's when they aren't dealing with those 'Cons at the same time."

 _"_ _It certainly sounds exciting, but shouldn't you be more focused on something else at the moment besides chatting with me,"_ Miriallia asked the long-range specialist.

"Hey, just because the fate of the universe is at stake, it doesn't mean I shouldn't try to take some time out of my day to talk to my favorite woman in all the universe," Dearka told her with a smile that was both sincere and a bit arrogant at the same time.

Miriallia's cheeks had gained a light dusting of pink at Dearka's comment before she shook her head and said, _"I doubt that Yzak would be too happy that you're making a personal call while you're supposed to be working though. You wouldn't want to get in trouble just because you're attempting to be a considerate boyfriend."_

"Hey, did you forget who you're talking to," Dearka asked. "I'm not scared of Yzak, and besides, I can easily multitask several different things at once. Plus, I'd risk facing the wrath of Galvatron himself for you, babe."

This time, Miriallia's blush fully reached her cheeks as she adopted a playful glare and told the blonde, _"Well you should really be more concerned about your friend who outranks you and can easily make you clean your team's entire ship with just a toothbrush, and me for that matter, since I've told you not to call me babe."_

Dearka cringed a bit, knowing that she was right in that regard. He had in fact promised to refrain from calling Miriallia babe after they had gotten back together again, but it did not stop him from doing it from time to time, and the result was a very pissed off Miriallia, which led to him facing a surprising amount of pain, in many forms. Before the blonde had a chance to cover up his small moment of forgetfulness, Arcee cut in and asked, "Hey Dearka, are you working or flirting with your girlfriend?"

"I'm working, I'm working," Dearka immediately called out, much to Miriallia's amusement.

 _"_ _Guess I'd better let you go before I get you in any more trouble,"_ Miriallia then said. _"I've got to get some photos turned in to my latest client anyways."_

"Hey Mir," Dearka then called out, stopping Miriallia before said girl could cut the line. "After I get back to Earth, how about I take you to that café you like so much? My treat."

Miriallia seemed to consider this for a minute before she asked, _"So you're willing to go out and pay for a date with me right after you get back from an alien planet, the journey from which will likely leave you jet-lagged even with the use of a Space Bridge?"_

"Like I said, anything for you," Dearka then softly reminded her.

Miriallia smiled at Dearka and replied, _"I'll think about it and let you know when you get back to Earth. See ya later tough guy."_

Dearka just chuckled a bit after Miriallia had ended the call and then brought his full attention back to his surroundings, still continuing to not see anything anywhere at all, much to his and the others' dismay and slight irritation. "I really hope those guys on the race track are having a better time than we are," the blonde muttered to himself as he activated the Verde Buster's scanners once again so that he could re-scan the area once more.

* * *

If he were being honest with himself, Bumblebee had not had as much fun in ages as he was right now racing alongside his friends in the Ultimate Grand Race. Every sharp turn, every moment when the track lead into a ramp that sent them flying several feet up in the air, every single time they came across a dangerous obstacle that only the best and fastest racers could get through all served to increase just how pumped up and excited the commander of the Autobot Earth Division felt right in that moment. Thankfully, years serving with Optimus and his fellow Autobots allowed Bumblebee to keep his excitement in check just enough so that he could keep his mind on his current job, and as such he always made sure to consistently check his rearview mirrors every so often so that he could keep a good eye on Ransack, Quicksilver, and Knockout.

It did not escape any of the Autobots' notice when the two Decepticons suddenly appeared in the race as Ransack's teammates, so it was to be expected when they all responded in the affirmative when he told them to keep an eye on them at all times. So far, Bumblebee's team was taking point on that end of the operation, which meant that they were doing their utmost to keep Ransack and his new teammates from passing them and catching up with Override, Hot Shot, and Jazz, each of whom were currently neck-in-neck for the lead position in the race. It was not something that was easily accomplished though, as there were a few times that the 'Cons and their new associate had tried to take advantage of particularly hard turns and such to try and get past Bumblebee's team, but thankfully it did not last long enough to bear any fruit. That did not mean that any of them were going to let their guard down though.

"Heads up guys," Smokescreen then called out. "Nut-sack and the 'Cons are closing in again!"

"Copy that," Bumblebee replied. "Keep a tight formation. Don't let them past us."

"Roger that," Smokescreen and Sideswipe responded as they immediately sped up to match Bumblebee's speed, effectively blocking any way for Ransack's team to pass theirs, much like they had done many times before now. What they did not expect though was something to suddenly hit Smokescreen on his right side, causing him to lose speed and begin swerving out of control for a minute until he regained his bearings.

"What happened? You okay," Sideswipe shouted over his comm. link.

"Yeah, I think so," Smokescreen replied. "But I can barely keep myself stable. It felt like something had shot me."

Bumblebee immediately radioed Springer when he heard that, and the triple-changer was quick to report in on what he found. _"Looks like we've got some uninvited guests to this little party,"_ Springer informed the 'Bots on the track. _"I can see what looks like Swindle from the Combaticons moving to take position for another shot, and if he's here, you can bet that the rest of Onslaught's team is here too."_

"Scrap, that's all we need right now," Bumblebee muttered to himself. "Alright, notify Arcee and Yzak, and have their groups try to intercept them as quickly as possible. In the meantime, do what you can to keep Swindle from getting off any more shots."

Springer immediately responded with an affirmative to Bumblebee's orders, and the leader of the Autobot Earth Division then quickly brought his attention back to the matter at hand just in time to see Ransack and Quicksilver slip past him and Sideswipe. Knowing that could only spell trouble for their friends, the two 'Bots immediately began to accelerate forward again in an attempt to catch up. They were a bit concerned about leaving Smokescreen behind, but when the young Autobot told them to just go on ahead without him, saying that they could not afford to let Ransack and the 'Cons win this race, the two reluctantly did as he asked and put metal to the pedal so that they could catch up, hoping to at least make sure that the 'Cons did not finish anywhere near first place.

* * *

 **Location: Junkion**

In all honesty, none of them were sure what to expect from a world that was named Junkion when they finally saw it from orbit, but when the _Orion_ finally made it through the Space Bridge and allowed them all their first glimpse of the planet, they were all positive that the sight they saw was nothing close to what they had imagined. If anything, it was much more filled with garbage than they had thought it would be. From where they were after they first dropped out of the Space Bridge, they could see that the planet was so covered in trash that it would have been surprising if they learned that the planet was not made of the waste entirely. They could even see a few early signs of large mountains of trash rising up from the planet's surface, and along with that, they also quickly spotted what looked like a makeshift docking platform jutting out from the planet on all sides, indicating that the citizens were likely to expect visitors from other worlds almost all the time for some odd reason.

Seeing that they probably had no other alternative for a landing site, Ultra Magnus immediately had Hound guide the ship into one of the many ports made of garbage as steadily as possible, as they did not want to risk starting off on a bad foot simply because they had wrecked some of the planet's port. Surprisingly, it seemed that the junk was able to support the _Orion_ 's weight as easily as one of the ports on either Cybertron or Earth, and after making sure that their ship was secured, Ultra Magnus had the pilots change into their regular pilot suits and then climb aboard their Gundams before opening the airlock and leading the team out onto the dock. It did not take long for everyone to get a good look around at their surroundings, but for the moment, all they could see was trash and garbage as far as they eye could see, and not even the smallest glimpse of any intelligent life.

"You'd think that for a planet that looks like they have visitors all the time, there would be a little bit more of a welcoming committee," Hound finally stated as he walked down the pier with the others.

Lunamaria had to scrunch up her nose after a minute, as she soon found out that they could even detect some sort of foul odor even from inside their Gundams while their helmets were sealed shut, before she finally said, "Maybe they had to leave after the stench of their own filth got to be too much for them to handle."

"I think I'd have to agree with you there, Luna. This place stinks, literally," Crosshairs then agreed as he waved a hand in front of his face in an attempt to blow the nasty smell away from him.

"Cut the chatter kids, it looks like that welcoming committee is heading our way now," Waltfeld suddenly called out from his Gaia, and the group quickly looked ahead to see a dark brown and grey dirt bike rolling toward them before it transformed into a similarly colored robot with spikes coming out of his shoulders, arms, knees, and backs of his feet, and a pair of horns on his head with orange colored optics that finished the journey towards them on foot.

Everyone was immediately on their guard at the sight of this spiky Transformer, as said spikes did not make him look all that friendly, but they were quick to relax when the 'Bot smiled at them and held out a hand for a handshake before suddenly saying, "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong."

"Um, excuse me," Rey asked, completely thrown off by the strange words, immediately thinking that they would need a universal translator until Ultra Magnus repeated the same thing back to the stranger.

"Okay, what the hell did they just say," Shinn asked.

"Universal greeting that was established eons ago," Bulkhead told his friend. "It's used to express good will towards alien beings when a language barrier is present."

"Pretty weird greeting," Lunamaria muttered before getting a nod in agreement from her two best friends.

"Welcome to Junkion," the stranger then said loudly in a gruff voice. "We've got everything you'll ever need in junk at the lowest prices anywhere."

"Thank you," Ultra Magnus nodded. "Perhaps you could take us to meet with your world's leader. There is an urgent matter we need to discuss with him, Mister…"

"Name's Junkyard my good man," the now identified Junkion replied. "And if you wanna see the boss-man, you just gotta say the word. You're not asking for a refund though, are you, because we don't give those."

"No," Ultra Magnus immediately dismissed. "You see, we're a group from the planets Earth and Cybertron, and we need to…"

"Yee guds, yousa from ways out deer," Junkyard suddenly asked, sounding a surprisingly great deal like a certain character from the _Star Wars_ movies. "Oh man! You must speak with our leader at once."

The group glanced between them for a minute in confusion, as Junkyard's way of talking suddenly sounded more regal when he said that last line, but they shrugged it off for a minute and immediately moved to follow him off the pier. When Junkyard assumed his vehicle mode, the rest of the group did the same, with Waltfeld's Gaia taking on the form of an orange and gold desert jeep, and they were soon racing through the numerous mountains of trash and junk until they reached one particular pile that looked as though it were meant to be a large monument or something where a world leader would be likely to reside. "Is there any part of this planet that isn't made of junk," Shinn asked aloud from the cockpit of the Grand Destiny's bomber plane mode.

"Well the place is called Junkion," Rey mused from the Liberator's tank mode.

"Hey, you little meat sacks got a problem with junk," a new voice suddenly asked in a menacing tone that was not dissimilar to the way a cliché gangster would talk, drawing everyone's attention to the large, orange and silver 'Bot that looked a bit like a cobbled together dump truck with detailing on his face that made it seem like he had a goatee. When Shinn and Rey both prepared to fall back on the defensive, due to the unfriendly aura that the new 'Bot was giving off, said 'Bot just laughed and said, "Nah, just kiddin' with ya man. I'm not like some un-cool dude or anything like that."

"And you are," Ultra Magnus asked as he and the others transformed into their bi-pedal modes once more so that they could have a proper conversation.

"The name's Gar, Wreck-Gar, and I'm the top dog around here," the now identified leader of Junkion replied as he started off with a lame James Bond impression.

"Okay, does everyone on this planet talk like they're quoting something," Shinn then asked in mild annoyance.

"Well with unlimited TV, internet, and phone, why wouldn't you switch today," Wreck-Gar responded with his own question, quoting a line from one of the old cable commercials.

"Are you saying that you talk like that because you spend a lot of time watching Earth entertainment programs or something," Bulkhead immediately questioned.

"That is correct! Give the man a round of applause everybody," Wreck-Gar shouted as he clapped happily. He then shifted into a more serious tone that was mixed with that of a western voice as he asked, "So what brings you folks round to this here little town?"

"We are here to re-establish friendly relations between your world and Cybertron," Ultra Magnus explained, immediately taking the lead in this part of the conversation. "Recently, we've been reaching out to the other worlds as well after ending a long war against a group of Cybertronians known as the Decepticons with the aid of the humans from Earth, but unfortunately, it is not just for the reasons of reopening doors that have been closed off for far too long. The Decepticon threat has now returned on a much grander scale, and their leader, Galvatron has confirmed that he intends to put the entire universe in danger. We believe that he may target your world in an attempt to further his goals, so we came to warn you so that you may ready any defenses your people may have, assuming the Decepticons are not already here."

"Whoa, you sir, are from the world of heroes," Wreck-Gar exclaimed happily. "Well now isn't this a great day for us all! We're back in touch with the motherland! Quick questions though, what's a Galvatron and what're humans?"

"Galvatron is the leader of the Decepticons," Waltfeld said as he opened the Gaia's cockpit and stepped out of his Gundam, with Rey, Lunamaria, and Shinn doing the same a minute later. "And as for your question on what're humans, well, you've got four examples right here."

Wreck-Gar looked down at the four pilots in child-like wonder for a few minute before saying, "Kind of…small, aren't you?"

"Maybe to you, but we more than make up for our size with our strength of will and our courage," Shinn proudly boasted.

"A most fascinating species to be certain," Wreck-Gar then stated. "Perhaps if I were to have more time to ascertain some information on your species, I would be able to come closer to understanding humanity, and what sets you apart from a mechanical being such as myself."

"Okay, now he's talking like Data from _Star Trek_? What next," Lunamaria then asked, drawing some curious glances from the others. "What?"

"Since when do you watch _Star Trek_ ," Crosshairs asked.

"Since always," Lunamaria replied, causing the looks she was receiving to get more astonished and wide-eyed. "Hey, you guys have your hobbies and I have mine. It's not like it's a crime to be into that you know, or do you guys think I can't be into that kind of thing just cause I'm a girl?"

"No, no it's not that, Luna. It's just that…well…uh," Rey stuttered before he finally turned to Shinn to ask for help.

"What we mean is that you never really seemed like you'd be into that kind of thing," Shinn quickly said.

"Well this is quite amusing, but I'm afraid that there's a small matter to deal with here," Wreck-Gar interrupted, immediately causing the friends to drop the topic for the moment. "While we may not be dealing with them outlaws you folks mentioned, we do have another much more serious problem on our hands."

"What could be more serious than the Decepticons," Bulkhead asked in small disbelief.

"One word, mate: Pirates," Wreck-Gar replied in a sailor's tone. "The lot of them have been plundering our waters for many a day now, stealing many of our most valuable junk. We know not how they keep getting in here, but they always strike at the late hour and then disappear with nary a trace. Of course, it could be because some of us have recently done a bit of singing about pirates, and that's bad luck. Course, it's also bad luck to bring a woman to sea, even a miniature one."

"Okay, whoa! Say that again, I dare you," Lunamaria snapped, her hand already going for her sidearm.

"Easy there, darling. I meant no offense," Wreck-Gar then assured the violet haired girl. Before anyone could say any more on the matter, a sudden explosion suddenly rang out from nearby, which prompted Wreck-Gar and Junkyard to transform into their respective vehicle modes, Wreck-Gar's being that of a dump truck, unsurprisingly, and immediately race towards the source. Feeling that they should not stand by while the Junkions were likely in trouble, the Autobots and Gundam pilots immediately followed after their newest friends in their own vehicle modes as well, until they saw the source of the explosion just ahead of them.

The area looked just like almost any other part of Junkion, that being a large mountain of trash, but with one major difference. Said mountain of trash was completely enflamed and there were numerous Transformers around it, with the few commonalities being that they had green optics, some form of large, fancy cutlass or other similar weapons, dark colored armor, and they were all fighting against many of the Junkions. Not wasting a minute, Wreck-Gar immediately transformed and pulled a large, metal pole from the trash bin on his back before twirling it around in his hands like a ninja and charging in to bash the invaders away from his people. A few of the invaders were caught off guard and swiftly dealt with by Wreck-Gar, but when they started to fight back, the Autobots and Gundam pilots immediately jumped into action in order to help by lighting up the stars with energon blasts.

After giving their new friends a quick salute in thanks, Wreck-Gar turned his attention back to one of the invaders and said in a heavy, Japanese accent, "You have dishonored sacred ground and attacked my people. Prepare to feel my wrath."

"Ha! Ye don't scare me, Junk-Bot," the invader snarled in a tone that was befitting of a cliché pirate as he drew his cutlass and clashed it against Wreck-Gar's staff. The two battled it out for a few more minutes, only catching glimpses of the Autobots and Gundams as they fought the allies of Wreck-Gar's opponent, until someone shouted out something that Wreck-Gar did not quite catch. Unfortunately, Wreck-Gar's opponent did, and he quickly shoved the Junkion leader off of him before transforming into an all-terrain vehicle of some type and racing away at high speed. When Shinn saw this, he immediately transformed the Grand Destiny into its bomber plane mode and chased after him, against Waltfeld's wishes.

As soon as Shinn had the invader that had previously been fighting Wreck-Gar in his sights, he immediately fired the Grand Destiny's forward guns in an attempt to stop the fleeing attacker in his tracks. Unfortunately, said invader was quick to evade Shinn's assault, and only transformed long enough to fire off a single shot before going back into his alt mode again. That single shot proved to be more than enough, as it struck one of the Grand Destiny's wings, and Shinn was lucky to have been able to transform his machine back into Gundam mode before it crashed down on the ground. He then brought the Grand Destiny to its feet and armed its Ragnarok Cannon to fire off a few shots until he paused in horror when he saw a massive ship with red energy barriers extending up on either side almost like large sails suddenly rising above the planet's surface, and a large, light blue skull with flames on the top embezzled on the front of the silver, cone-shaped nose.

Even from his current position, Shinn was able to see that all of the invaders, who were most definitely the pirates that Wreck-Gar had mentioned earlier, were aboard the ship, and he immediately began to fire off a few rounds from his cannon. Sadly, none of the Grand Destiny's shots were able to scratch the ship, both because of the shields around the ship that had come online the minute it began take-off, and because it was already soaring away at a speed unlike anything Shinn had seen from other ships like that one. Seeing as he had no other option now, Shinn dejectedly put away his Gundam's weapon and turned to fly back to the others.

When he finally reached them, he saw that his fellow pilots had climbed out of their suits to help with the damage in ways that they couldn't while in their Gundams, and he quickly landed and climbed out as well before joining them with a sad look on his face. "Let me guess, you didn't get them did you," Waltfeld asked Shinn.

"No," Shinn replied. "The guy got off a lucky shot on me and knocked me out of the air just in time for me to watch their ship take off. Sorry Mister Waltfeld."

"Hey don't worry about it. We can't always win every battle. Just be glad that everyone's still in one piece for the most part and that we'll still be able to get them later. Besides, you did your best," Waltfeld assured the younger pilot, getting a thankful smile from Shinn in response.

All smile quickly vanished though when Wreck-Gar suddenly cried out, "We're doomed! Doomed I tell you! They took the treasure!"

"What treasure," Rey asked.

"He's referring to the power source of the gravity field generator that our world uses to keep itself together," Junkyard clarified. "Without the generator, the entire planet would come apart at the seams, leaving all our glorious junk to drift off into the depths of the unknown, and all of us homeless. Thankfully, it has enough reserve power to prevent a total collapse from happening all at once, but it's only a matter of time before Junkion begins to break apart."

"That's horrible," Lunamaria cried out, truly meaning it despite how she felt about the planet since arriving. "Isn't there something you can do to keep that from happening, like a backup power source or something?"

"If only it were that simple," Wreck-Gar told the group sadly. "That beauty is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and without it, we go back into storage. It's that simple."

"Then we only have one course of action. We'll see if we can gain some more time by lending some parts and power packs that are adaptable from our ship, and then pursue those pirates at once so that we may retrieve your power source," Ultra Magnus decided.

"Well gosh, that'd be swell," Wreck-Gar exclaimed happily. "You truly are heroes."

"Or fools," a new, English accented voice suddenly said, drawing all their attention to where it had originated from. "The _Kalis' Lament_ is nigh uncatchable, even by the fastest of ships in the galaxy. Best find yourselves a new battery or a new planet mates."

It did not take long for Wreck-Gar to realize where the person who had spoken was currently standing, and he immediately led the Autobots and Gundam pilots over to that location as he called out, "Halt! You shall not pass! That area is off-limits to civilians!"

"Wreck-Gar is correct," Junkyard stated, clearly giving a better translation as to what his leader meant, right at the moment when they came out to see a large ship with a brown and red color scheme, and a design that was much more streamlined than the rest of the cobbled together planet that it obviously belonged to, given how worked up Wreck-Gar and Junkyard seemed to be getting. "The _Hyperion_ is Junkion's flagship. You are not permitted to be aboard it."

"Well then it is a rather fine thing that I am not a civilian, and this beautiful vessel should make a fine pirate ship," the stranger then replied, instantly putting everyone on their guard, aside from Lunamaria.

"Wait a minute. Pirate ship…and that voice…," the violet haired girl softly whispered. Her eyes then widened in recognition before she groaned, "Oh no, not him!"

"You know this slagger, Luna," Shinn asked.

"I honestly wish I didn't."

A minute later, they were all greeted with the sight of a large Transformer that was about the same height as Ultra Magnus, with a dark blue, silver, and gold color scheme, green optics, and a face that had what appeared to be a typical pirate's beard. His arms and shoulders each had a set of three, gold claws upon each, while he carried a cutlass on his left side and what looked like a pistol on the other, and a sea-green symbol that looked like a fusion of the Autobot and Decepticon symbols with a pair of blades seemed to crisscross beneath the face like a typical pirate's skull and cross bones was adorned on his chest, which looked like a silver lion's head. "Captain Thundertron of the Star Seekers, at your service, mates," the clear pirate said with an air of pride. "So good to see some of me old friends from the Autobot Earth Division."

"We are most assuredly not friends, Thundertron, and I am placing you under arrest for multiple crimes, including piracy, deceiving Autobot personnel, and stealing Autobot resources and technology," Ultra Magnus then said, letting his usual authoritative tone gain an undercurrent of anger as he did.

"First off, there should be a 'captain' in there, mate, and secondly, you could do that, my dear commodore," Thundertron started to say.

"Commander," Ultra Magnus snarled.

"Not the point," Thundertron waved off. "You could do that, and follow the rule of what a 'Bot can do, and what he can't do. Like I said, you can bring me in, but you can't however, chase after the _Kalis' Lament_ without me to lead ye there. Just as I could take this ship and leave all of you and yer fellow gravity lubbers here to die, but I can't bring this ship into port at where me mutinous crew is sailing to all by me onesy, Savvy? So, do you think you can bear to sail the great stars with a 'wretched pirate' such as meself?"

The group quickly huddled together in order to discuss what Thundertron had just told them, and what course of action they should take from there. "What do you guys think? Can we trust him," Waltfeld then asked, aiming the question specifically towards the members of their team who were a part of the Autobot Earth Division.

"Is that even a serious question," Shinn quickly voiced his disbelief. "The guy's a pirate! Of course we can't trust him."

"Maybe, but, as much as I'd hate to admit it, Thundertron has helped the Earth Division a few times in the past," Luna revealed. "Some of those times may have been for his own benefit, but he has shown his moments of actually caring about others in the past. We can definitely trust him to do whatever benefits him, so as long as we are able to take actions that align with such things, then we might be able to trust him."

"He is correct in saying that the ship we just saw was his in the past," Ultra Magnus then added. "So if anyone has a strong chance of catching up with it, or even outmaneuvering it, it would be him."

"Well we can't just leave the Junkions to fend for themselves, and I don't feel like risking the chance of losing our own ship either since it may be our only way back home," Crosshairs then added.

"He may be junk, but any junk that helps is good junk," Wreck-Gar then stated, adding in his own two cents to the group huddle

"Well I guess that settles it then," Waltfeld nodded. "Rey, you and Hound stay here and keep both our ship and the Junkions safe while doing what you can to keep this junk pile of a planet together until the rest of us get back. The rest of you, looks like we're going on a little pirate treasure hunt."

Everyone immediately nodded in agreement with the Desert Tiger, and soon after, Rey and Hound had split off from the group to return to their ship, while the others turned to face Thundertron and inform him of their decision. "Alright then. If you can help us track down the fleeing vessel that had just attacked Junkion, then we shall accept your help, but do anything to double cross us, and you will be facing consequences, Thundertron," Ultra Magnus told the pirate.

" _Captain_ Thundertron," said pirate corrected once again. "Now then if that's all that needs to be said, let's make sail. Move it ye scurvy dogs! Set the thrusters on full! Make way for the Maelstrom Belt!"

Everyone that was going with Thundertron rolled their eyes at the pirate as they climbed aboard, paying him as little mind as they could, while Hound and Rey just waved their friends off along with Wreck-Gar and his people, wishing them the best of luck. As the _Hyperion_ lifted off into the stars and "set sail", as Thundertron put it, the Autobots and Gundam pilots all had one thought running through their minds at the moment. _What kind of scrap have we gotten ourselves into this time?_

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Star Seekers**

 **The first encounter with the Star Seekers was made by the Autobot Earth Division in the earlier days of the team. At first glance, the Star Seekers were most certainly your typical pirates, and their captain, Thundertron, seemed to be a mixture of the cliche pirate captain and that of the character known as Jack Sparrow. Since their first encounter with the group on Earth, the Autobot Earth Division had often met up with Thundertron and his crew many times afterwards, even clashing with them on more than one occasion, much to the dismay of many of the members. The ones most opposed to the pirates are Commander Ultra Magnus, for the obvious reasons, and Earth Division human member and mobile suit pilot, Lunamaria Hawke, who while initially impressed with Thundertron, soon grew to dislike him to the point not willingly trusting him entirely afterwards.**

 **Thundertron often believes that one should live by the concept of what you can do, and what you can't do, which shows in how he captains his ship and leads his crew, and he also follows the belief in sailing for the sake of freedom that his voyages give him, and by acting as an honorable pirate. Research into how such an oxymoron could even exist is still ongoing. Regardless of this, it shows in how he leads, as he has always been known to be fair to his crew, never once inflicting harm on them in anyway, even for profit, lest they give him adequate reason to do so.**

* * *

 ** _AN: Well there you have it! Another installment in the legacy complete._**

 ** _Kira: Why the heck did you include that little bit with me and Athrun discussing a battle cry for me, and who was that Dave guy?_**

 ** _AN: In reverse order, for those of you who have not read Keyblades of Future Past, that Dave guy is an OC character that stands in for me when I want to make an appearance in these stories. In effect, he is me, or rather, the me I'd like to be in a manner of speaking. As for the whole battle cry discussion, it's actually showing that I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with something solid for Kira's battle cry, because he will get one, I assure you, while adding a bit of humor in._**

 ** _Cagalli: And the Star Seekers?_**

 ** _AN: I first read about them in some of the recent Transformers novels, and the idea of Transformers pirates actually got me pretty intrigued, since that was the first I had heard of them, to my knowledge. I know some of you who have read those novels or just about the character himself may be thinking that Thundertron is a bit OOC, but to be honest, this is my take on the character, so think of it as this story's version of him._**

 ** _Shinn: Doesn't really look like your going to have much happening on Junkion though._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I'll be honest, aside from the whole pirate problem, there really isn't all that much to do to get Junkion on board with everything. I just included the planet cause I think Wreck-Gar can be a bit funny sometimes and because the planet is a classic Transformers world. Speaking of which, Wreck-Gar's appearance is that of his Transformers Animated appearance, as I feel that it suits him a bit more than his G1 style did. Junkyard has his G1 appearance though, so there's some compensation for those of you who think otherwise about Wreck-Gar's appearance._**

 ** _Dearka: [pealing off the last of the lizard skin] I'm just glad we saw something in the romance department other than KiraxLacus, AthrunxCagalli, or ShinnxLunamaria, and I'm just saying that because it was me and Miriallia who were taking the romance stage in this chapter._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, to be honest, I just kinda threw that in there, as we haven't really seen all that much from all the different couples in this story's timeline other than the ones that Dearka had just mentioned. That, and I can honestly see Dearka doing something like that to be honest._**

 ** _Also, if any of you have any suggestions for what Kira's battle cry should be, please feel free to shoot me a PM or post it in a review, as I am open to suggestions on it. Now with all that said, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Magnus and Waltfeld's team find themselves at the mercy of the space tides, as they struggle to work with Captain Thundertron of the fearsome Star Seekers. Given the past he has with the Autobot Earth Division, it is easy for Shinn to quickly see why that is the case. Meanwhile on Velocitron, since their teams had managed to somehow make it through the first leg, Override and Bumblebee's groups now gear up for the next leg of the race, which will challenge all their skills as drivers. But when its discovered that one racer in their group is no longer able to compete, what lengths will Bumblebee find himself resorting to in order to make sure the Decepticons don't achieve their goals? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 9: Drive to Survive** ** _._** **Ogygia** ** _team, rev up your engines for the race of your lives!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	9. Drive to Survive

_**AN: Hey everybody, we're back with another round of Chaos Hunters, and this time around, we're cruising through Velocitron as our heroes take on round 2 of the Ultimate Grand Race.**_

 _ **Shinn: Hey hold up a second! There's something you should probably address. Me and the others were looking over some of the reviews for this story so far, and there's this one guest review from chapter 7 that kind of ticks me off.**_

 _ **AN: Oh right. No worries I know which one you're talking about. In all honesty, I meant to address this last chapter. Anyways, the review stated that I had implied that Rau Le Creuset was currently the only evil of all the human race. This was in response to what the ending Authors Note for that chapter had said in regards to the addition of the new mobile suits that Shockwave had created.**_

 _ **Let me make this as simple as I can. I never, I repeat, NEVER said that Le Creuset was the only evil human in the universe. What I said was he was the only human ANTAGONIST in this STORY. Antagonist as in the villain of a story, not an evil of an entire world. Rau was the only human ANTAGONIST this story had at the time, but that doesn't mean that he is the only evil left in the human race. He's just the only one that this story focuses on at the moment, aside from the humans that are being brought back to life by Dark Energon like Jaylen was. There are some humans in this story who would probably be considered as evil, but they are not important to this story. Rau Le Creuset and his forces that he acquires from the Decepticons are.**_

 _ **Natarle: Okay, I'm sure they get it now. Really, you might want to stop before you end up accidentally explaining how the Predacon...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]**_

 _ **Natarle: [looks up when a large, dragon-shaped shadow appears over her to see Blue-Eyes White Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh is about to fire its attack at her] Uh-oh. [Gets blown up by Blue-Eyes]**_

 _ **AN: Okay, well with that rant and quick spoiler prevention out of the way, let's roll out!**_

 _ **As stated in the past, new Transformers that are officially appearing in this story for the first time will have their names in bold.**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Drive to Survive**

 **Location: Velocitron**

In all honesty, Bumblebee did not want to radio in his usual report, but he knew that he had to, otherwise there would not be any chance of his team getting the help they now very likely needed. That is why he was now standing in the _Ogygia_ 's communications room with Yzak, patching through a communication to Earth. After waiting for a few more minutes, they were soon greeted with the faces of Kira and Ironhide as the former of the two said, _"This is New Iacon Base, go ahead_ Ogygia."

"Hey Kira and…Ironhide? Where's Magnus," Bumblebee asked, already a bit confused by the fact that the 'Bot he had left in charge was not answering along with Kira like he always did whenever Optimus could not.

 _"_ _He had to head out on another mission, one involving the fact that we located another of those colony worlds, and left me in charge in his absence,"_ Ironhide explained. _"From what we last heard, convincing the locals to accept our aid shouldn't be a problem, but they ran into a little trouble that could spell disaster for Junkion unless our boys can do something about it, and it looks like in order to do something, they've had to accept help from an old swash-buckling friend of yours."_

"Urgh, Thundertron," Bumblebee moaned. "What was he doing on the trash planet?"

 _"_ _He hasn't really given a full answer on that yet, but at the moment, he is the best chance Magnus and Mister Waltfeld's team have of helping to save Junkion before the planet starts coming apart at the seams,"_ Kira replied. _"More importantly though, how're things going on Velocitron? Did you guys make it through the first race?"_

"Yeah we did, but we've got a new problem now," Bumblebee stated. "During the race, the Combaticon Swindle tried to sabotage us by taking a shot at Smokescreen with a sniper rifle. Springer and Arcee's groups were quick to move in order to intercept him and any of the other Combaticons in case they were all here, but the fragger slipped away before they got there."

"It's pretty obvious that the 'Cons are going to do whatever it takes to help Ransack win this thing," Yzak then reported. "And now they've dealt a hard blow to us. Smokescreen's not too badly injured, but it is just enough to keep him from competing in the next leg of the race. Override's said we can swap him out for a substitute, but we can't spare anyone for the sake of our mission."

 _"_ _Why not just report this to the authorities? If you're so sure that Ransack and the 'Cons are behind that attack, then that would immediately get them disqualified, wouldn't it,"_ Ironhide pointed out like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We would if we could, but accusing someone of using weapons on a racer while said racer is in a race is a very serious matter on Velocitron, and if the accusation proves wrong, it could easily backfire just as heavily on the one who made the accusation as it could affect the person being accused," Bumblebee explained with a groan. "And since we don't have any proof beyond a bit of hearsay, it's too great a risk for us to take."

 _"_ _So now the only option is to keep going like you have been, and in order to do that is to find someone to take over Smokescreen's spot on your team,"_ Kira then asked, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.

"Yeah, and we can't do that for a number of reasons," Yzak reported. "We can't put Springer in because he's our only guy for covering the skies, and Skids and Mudflap refuse to race unless they're both doing so. Plus since Jazz is on Override's team, he can't do either."

 _"_ _What about Arcee or Clocker? Arcee's pretty fast, and Clocker is a Velocitronian,"_ Ironhide then offered.

Bumblebee immediately cringed when he heard Ironhide suggest Arcee and he immediately said, "Yeah, I'm not asking Arcee to join the race without having a good reason to want to die. She's never been a big fan of racing because she thinks that it's an abuse of horse power, and that means going against Autobot policy of abusing power, period."

"And Clocker has made it no secret that he's much better off in the pit crew than he is on the track, both through words and actions, so I can't see him being an option for Smokescreen's replacement racer either," Yzak reported. "Isn't there any chance you can send somebody up here to help us out? We'll even take Blur if we have to."

 _"_ _Sorry Yzak, we would if we could, but we're getting spread pretty thin as it is,"_ Kira stated. _"We need as many 'Bots here on Earth as we can get for when we locate those other worlds, and even in that case, it doesn't seem like we have enough guys with all that's happened in the recent days."_

"You mean it's gotten worse," Bumblebee asked.

 _"_ _That's putting it mildly,"_ Ironhide informed them. _"About a day after Magnus's team had left, that volcano that's been spewing up Dark Energon seemed to start doubling its payload of the stuff, and we've been doing everything we can to intercept the 'Cons when they try to make a run into and out of that area. I doubt I need to tell you why we can't send anyone into the area around the volcano once the 'Cons are there."_

"That can't be all that's happened to make you guys more cautious about sending us some backup," Yzak remarked.

 _"_ _That's because it's not,"_ Kira then revealed. _"In those same recent hours, a number of natural disasters just suddenly started flaring up all over the Earth, like nature itself is now getting affected by the Dark Energon and is lashing out in an attempt to get rid of it. We've now seen numerous severe tornados, sudden earthquakes and fault lines going berserk, monstrous tsunamis, massive fire outbreaks, and just about every other form of natural disaster you can think of. The Protectobots alone have been working overtime to deal with the situation, but we've had to pull out all the stops to help prevent a more serious disaster from happening, including sending out Z.A.F.T. and Earth Forces troops that are already on Earth to provide some kind of aid, along with members of the Gundam Team, seeing as we've now gotten all the machines fully completed. There's just no end in sight at the moment though, and we can't get any help from space because the storms have gotten to the point where it's so severe that anything that tries to come down from space is liable to be torn apart mere minutes after completing atmospheric re-entry at best."_

Yzak gritted his teeth hearing this, honestly feeling that he should be there right now when his planet needs him, but he knew that the matter on Velocitron was more important at the moment. Still, he felt that he had to ask, "How're we going to get back if no ships can get through the atmosphere?"

 _"_ _Don't worry, the Space Bridge and Ground Bridge aren't suffering from any interference,"_ Ironhide confidently assured them. _"Plus there have been a few breaks in the storms that we've been able to use to get some help from the PLANTs and the Lunar Bases down here, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get you guys back here when you're mission's complete. You guys just worry about finding someone to fill in for Smokescreen in the running."_

At that point, Kira's face had lit up a little, indicating that he was just struck by a sudden inspiration, and he immediately asked, _"You guys only mentioned why you couldn't have any of the other Autobots take part in this race, right?"_

"Well yeah, that's kind of the problem," Yzak pointed out. "We can't exactly enter when none of the other 'Bots are able to race."

 _"_ _Maybe that's your problem right there,"_ Kira reasoned. _"You're only thinking in terms of other Autobots, not in terms of all your teammates."_

Yzak and Bumblebee were a bit confused by what Kira meant at first, but his meaning did not take too much longer before registering, and as soon as it had, Bumblebee looked to his friend in astonishment and asked, "You're not suggesting that we have Dearka, Nicol, or Yzak take Smokescreen's place, are you?"

 _"_ _Why not,"_ Kira asked. _"The whole point of developing the Transformer Gundams was to allow us humans to be able to stand on even ground with other Transformers, and no one ever said that only applied to battles."_

"Need I remind you of the vehicle forms that our mobile suits have," Yzak then pointed out, essentially reminding Kira that the silver haired man and Dearka's suits transformed into military vehicles while Nicol's was not meant to act as a racing vehicle.

 _"_ _Technically speaking, none of the Autobots' vehicle modes were meant for certain situations, Yzak, but they manage to use them for those situations regardless, so why can't you guys,"_ Kira immediately reminded his friend.

Yzak had to admit that Kira did have a point. The Transformer Gundams were meant to give him and his fellow pilots the ability to stand side-by-side with the Autobots on all fronts of their battles, and that did indeed apply to situations outside of the battlefield like this one. Seeing as there was no other way to counter Kira's argument, Yzak finally sighed and said, "Okay, you win. I'll talk with Dearka and Nicol, and see which of them will be willing to get out there on that track right away. We'll contact you again later when we have any additional news."

Kira and Ironhide nodded in confirmation of this and then ended the communication, leaving Bumblebee and Yzak to head over to where the other to pilots were currently working on their machines and equipment so that they could propose the idea to them both. The main reason Yzak did not want to do this was because he felt that it would be better for him to stay out of the race as long as possible, seeing as they already had one team leader on the track as it is, and that was why he preferred to have either Nicol or Dearka be the ones to race in Smokescreen's place. Even so, both Yzak and Bumblebee could not help but get a bad feeling from the idea that they were now about to carry out.

* * *

 **Location: Somewhere in Space**

When the _Orion_ team had left with Thundertron, they had expected to head directly after the fleeing pirates, but it turned out that Thundertron was in need of supplies that they would need for their pursuit of his former vessel in addition to wanting to pick up some of his crew that had remained loyal to him after the mutiny aboard his ship that he had informed them of. When the group asked him about this, they found out that, apparently, Thundertron had taken a former Eradicon into his crew out of the goodness of his spark, or so he claimed, and said Eradicon ended up leading a mutiny that caused Thundertron and those who were still loyal to him to be booted off the ship, while Thundertron himself was left stranded on a desolate asteroid with nothing more than a blaster with only one shot in it until he eventually escaped. It did not take Thundertron long to find the loyal members of the Star Seekers afterwards, and they were now heading to gather them up.

Ultra Magnus had insisted that they should pursue the hostile pirates at once, seeing as they were on a very limited time table if they were to save Junkion, but Thundertron immediately argued that it would do them no good to fight against the traitorous crew members of his old ship with what numbers they currently had, and so the SIC of the Autobots immediately let the matter drop, much to his chagrin. That was why they were now on a remote moon that was crawling with pirates, low-lives, and all other form of scum in the universe as Thundertron sought out his loyal first mate and crew while a vast majority of the Autobot and Gundam teams remained on the ship, save for Shinn who went with Thundertron. As he glanced around, Shinn could not help but sneer in disgust at the sights of all these people who were sloshing around drinks and throwing out punches after getting angry over the simplest things before he finally said, "You consider this place to be a paradise?"

"Aye that it is, lad, for a pirate such as me self. Why if every place were like the cesspool that is Tahn-Reagar VII, then everyone would be happy," Thundertron replied proudly. Shinn had to roll his eyes in doubt of such a claim when he noticed that a femme was striding up to Thundertron, who the pirate captain beamed happily at the sight of, until said femme slapped him across the face, turning his head towards Shinn's Grand Destiny Gundam before storming off. "Not sure I deserved that," Thundertron commented to the crimson-eyed pilot before he turned back to see another femme had approached him, who he identified as Moonracer.

"Who was she," Moonracer asked Thundertron in an all-too-innocent voice that Shinn immediately knew meant trouble, having heard it a few times from Lunamaria.

Sadly, it did not seem that Thundertron had picked up on that tone of voice as he simply replied, "What?" The next thing that happened was the pirate getting slapped again before the femme stormed off in huff like the last one had. "I may have deserved that," Thundertron admitted.

"Can we just find your 'loyal crew' of 'most honest and true pirates', and get out of here? We are in a hurry you know," Shinn asked as he reminded the captain of their mission.

"Relax Shinn, me lad, we'll be making sail in a mere few moments," Thundertron waved off as he marched on towards a small shack where they soon found a mech sleeping inside of.

"Yeah, assuming we don't run into anymore female friends of yours," Shinn muttered.

Thundertron paid Shinn no mind on that comment, and simply threw a bucket of a liquid-like substance on the sleeping mech, startling him awake. The mech angrily looked around until his optics found the pirate captain, which led him to gain a small smile as he asked, "Scrap Thundertron, don't you know it's bad luck to wake a mech when he's sleeping?"

"Well fortunately I know how to counter it," Thundertron immediately replied. "The mech who did the waking buys the mech who was sleeping a drink. The mech who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the mech who did the waking. Am I wrong, **Cannonball** , old chum?"

"…Aye, that'll about do it," the now identified Cannonball confirmed as he stood up. Now that he was standing, Shinn was able to see that Cannonball was a rather average sized mech, with black and dark orange armor, and had single eyepiece over one of his sea-green optics, and a black blaster in place of his left hand, leading Shinn to think that Cannonball left it that way on purpose after losing his original hand. He seemed to strike Shinn as one of those "loyal and honest true pirates" that Thundertron was always claiming to be, but still, the minute Cannonball was on his feet, Shinn did not even think for a second before having the Grand Destiny lob another bucket of the water-like liquid on the mech as soon as he was standing up straight. "Blast damn, I'm already awake!"

"That was for the smell," Shinn immediately informed the pirate, getting a nod in acceptance from Cannonball a minute later, along with a smile of humor from Thundertron. The three then walked out of the shack that Cannonball was in, and set out to get that drink Thundertron had offered his first mate before finding the rest of his loyal crew.

* * *

A little while later, they found that they were only joined by two other Transformer pirates, who went by the names of **Brimstone** and **Flamewar** , the former of which was a skinny looking mech that assumed the former of an old, blue motorcycle with green flames on the sides, while the latter looked a lot like a dark colored version of Arcee with a series attitude problem. The only one who objected more to having more pirates along for the ride than Magnus or Lunamaria was actually Cannonball, who was against having the femme of the two with them, saying that it was bad luck to bring a femme on a voyage, but Thundertron was quick to point out that having two aboard would counteract said bad luck, and that it would have been worse luck not to bring Flamewar with them. With the newest additions of their crew and the supplies now gathered, the team was finally able to set sail for the Maelstrom Belt that Thundertron had previously mentioned when they were leaving Junkion.

As they soared across the stars of space, it was clear that Luna was more than happy to start something with any of the pirates among their group, clearly indicating that she had met all of the Star Seekers, and that she did not like them any more than she did their captain. Thankfully, Shinn and Waltfeld were able to keep the girl calm before she did start something, and they were more than happy that Cannonball was able to keep Flamewar cool as well, as the femme pirate made it no secret she wanted to start something as well with Lunamaria in particular. Having just recently helped to calm his girlfriend down, Shinn was exhausted enough to actually walk up to Thundertron and strike up a conversation with the captain. "So out of curiosity, how did you escape that meteor that your former crewmates left you on," Shinn asked.

"Ah, an excellent question Sam," Thundertron commented.

"It's Shinn," the pilot corrected.

"Right, whatever," Thundertron remarked as he began the tale. "Well you see, when they marooned me on that star forsaken spit of rock, they forgot one very important thing, mate…I'm Captain Thundertron." Seeing Shinn give him a deadpan look that said that did not answer anything, Thundertron then elaborated, "I spent many a cycle on that rock, until I finally waded myself into the zero-gravity void for a few days, and caught me self a couple of space creatures, roped them together, and made a raft."

Shinn was honestly wondering if that was even possible, given how absurd it sounded, but he just shook it off as he pointed out a small flaw in the story. "Where'd you get the rope?"

"Long, extruding cables on my back," Thundertron answered. Shinn immediately flinched at this, as he immediately knew that to mean the equivalent of human hair, and then ceased this line of questioning for the moment. "Now if ye don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions lad," Thundertron then told Shinn. "Why's a bloke like you hanging around with a lot like the Autobots anyways?"

Shinn did not need to think about it all that long before he replied, "Because I made a promise to always fight for what's right and protect everyone who couldn't protect themselves, along with the things that were most important to me. When I was younger, one of the Autobots had saved my life for no other reason than simply because he could and wanted to. I wanted to be just like him and protect people who couldn't protect themselves, but over time, I learned that there was more to being an Autobot than just fighting to protect people. There's also a need to have a good reason and someone to fight for."

"Might I take a gander and say that someone you fight for is a certain, lovely young lass who happens to pilot that lovely violet-red and blue colored mobile thingy over there," Thundertron asked, only receiving a small nod in reply from Shinn as the pilot was too caught up in watching Lunamaria as she worked on her Gundam to give a vocal response. "Well now, that is a right fine reason, lad. Seems like you know exactly what you can do and can't do, a fine thing to know for any mech, or man in your case, for knowing that makes you strong."

Shinn smiled a little in thanks for the comment, and was beginning to find himself liking the pirate captain a bit. He honestly envied Thundertron a bit for being able to sail across the stars and do whatever he wanted, but Shinn honestly preferred how things were done in the Autobots, and as such, felt that he could not give that up for anything in the universe. A minute later, Shinn noticed Luna arguing with Flamewar again, and immediately sighed before running off to help Waltfeld calm her down again, already feeling like it was going to be a long voyage until they finally reached the Maelstrom Belt.

* * *

 **Location: Velocitron**

The crowd was roaring and hollering as loud as they could, expressing their excitement for the galaxy to hear, as the second leg of the Ultimate Grand Race was now about to begin, and the racers were all lined up at the starting line of the second leg's track, the most dangerous and devastating of all the official race courses on Velocitron, Rust Storm Runner. As he sat in the Verde Buster on Bumblebee's right while Sideswipe occupied the other side, Dearka had to admit that despite how excited he was to help out and get in on the action on the track when Yzak had asked him to, he was now feeling surprisingly nervous. Being a mobile suit pilot and fighting against an enemy in combat was one thing, but fighting against the enemy in a race was something that had Dearka a little on edge, especially since he was only allowed to use the Verde Buster's weapons for clearing certain emergencies. The blonde had to admit that now that he was down there on the track with the others, the full gravity of the situation was now falling down on him at full force, because he knew that he had to do whatever he could to make sure that Ransack and the 'Cons did not place too high in the running for this round of the race, because otherwise, it would mean that the scum of Velocitron would be the one to have the higher chance of moving on to the final leg of the race while he and the rest of Bumblebee's team would be out completely, and there was no way that Dearka planned on letting that happen if there was anything he could do about it.

It was not all that hard to even sense Dearka's nervousness, as Bumblebee soon told the young pilot, "Relax Dearka. This is no different than driving your mobile suit in vehicle mode. You just have to move a little faster and know how to react to certain obstacles on the road at what time. You'll be fine so long as you stick with both me and Sideswipe."

Dearka took a long breath in response to what Bumblebee was saying before he finally smirked and replied, "Right. We've got this, so let's show those 'Cons that the Autobots can't be beat on any battlefield."

"Well it sounds like you've really got the right spirit kid," Sideswipe commented as he revved his engine in anticipation for the start of the race. "Now let's see if you've got the piloting skills to back up your talk."

Just a short ways behind them, Ransack was snarling a bit at the fact that Override's team had placed higher than him and he had somehow tied with the newcomers that he met the other day when he confronted Hot Shot. In addition to that, instead of dropping from the race, they had somehow managed to find a replacement for the blue and yellow kid that he was told would be out of the race due to the injury that his new associates had caused. "What gives," Ransack demanded of his two teammates. "I thought you said that they didn't have anyone else to race with them on this thing, and yet, oh lookie here, there's another guy sitting at the starting line with them. Care to explain Quirk-silver?"

"It's Quicksilver you speed-obsessed child," the apprentice of Starscream retorted. "And don't worry about it. It's likely just one of the Autobots' human pets driving one of their transports. How they got such a vehicle here so quickly or why they chose a vehicle like that one is beyond me, but don't worry about it too much. He is of little threat to you."

"Well he'd better be, otherwise this little deal is off," Ransack immediately warned the two 'Cons in response. "I've already stuck my neck out way more than I'm okay with for you off-worlders, and that's not including the fact that I let you actually fire on racers during a race twice now. Anymore than I already have and I might as well just scrap myself."

"Just relax my friend. I assure you, everything will work out well for us all in the end," Knockout replied in his usual smooth tone. Ransack just huffed in reply before he brought his attention back to the track ahead of him, revving his engine for action as he did, and a minute later, the starting signal began to come online, signaling that it was nearly time.

They did not have to wait for very long, for it was only a few tense seconds later that the starting signal went from activated to green, and the minute it had, the racers were all off like rockets down the track. Override, Hot Shot, and Jazz were quick to take an early lead once again, and Bumblebee's team was not far behind, even though Dearka was at the back of the three man team, easily marking the point between their teams and Ransack's. All the other racers were soon left struggling just to get a position where they would place ahead of Ransack and the 'Cons by that point, but soon enough, it became clear that the race would definitely be between the three leading teams as they came across the first obstacles on the track.

The area around them seemed to be covered with ancient ruins, many of which had hieroglyphics that Bumblebee and the other Cybertronians quickly recognized as the language of Ancient Cybertronians, and there many points when the ruins seemed to jut out through the track, causing the need to make sudden, severe turns if anyone did not wish to crash into them, and ultimately be sent flying off the track and out of the race. The track even extended into many of the different pyramid-like structures, leading racers through immensely dark caverns that one would need to slow down immensely in order to navigate safely if they did not have really powerful headlights to illuminate the area before them, and every time the track did go through said structures, Dearka was quick to notice that the track itself was very worn and rough, right to the point where parts of the track had even collapsed in some places, which lead to large drops that reached the ground far below them. Thankfully, the moments when they had to jump across the large gaps in the track to continue going forward were not as great as the one that the blonde had encountered when he and Smokescreen had ended up racing against Ransack the other day, and when it did seem like it would be a little too much for him, Sideswipe was quick to provide him with a little extra help by letting the Verde Buster draft with him.

Since they had been on this particular track a few times before already, Override and Hot Shot were able to navigate through the mountain of Velocitronian ruins with relative ease, allowing Jazz to get through relatively easily by following their lead. Bumblebee's team on the other hand had to rely on Sideswipe's knowledge of the course alone, but thankfully they were allowed to study the track beforehand like all the other competitors, so they were not all that blind to what they were facing in this race. Unfortunately, that did not seem to be the case for the Decepticons' team. "This place is murder on my finish," Knockout moaned as he barely swerved around a large column that extended up through the track at the last second. His point was quickly proven when the last minute turn he made ended up placing a number of serious scratches on said finish, much to the vain doctor's irritation. "Couldn't they have selected a different track? Preferably one that isn't trying to kill us at every turn for example?"

"Now why would they do that," Ransack asked. "The Ultimate Grand Race decides the planet's leader, and they have to be more than just fast. They also have to have the strength to handle some of the worst stuff Velocitron can handle. That's one of the reasons why I can't figure out how some princess like Override has been able to hold her position for so long."

"Is it simply because she is a femme that you can't believe that," Quicksilver asked.

"Well that's part of it," Ransack admitted. "But the other part is that I'm way tougher than she could ever be. Do you really think I'd have so many loyal followers if I wasn't?"

"Please, all those 'loyal' followers of yours would have to do is so much as gain one glance of either Master Starscream or Lord Galvatron, and they would leave you for waste like bad energon," Quicksilver scoffed.

"I've got to agree with Starscream's pet on that one, kid," Knockout admitted. "You won't find a Transformer anywhere in the universe that's tougher than Galvatron, even back when he was known as Megatron."

"Sh-shut up! There's no way any of you off-worlders could ever be better than me! You got that," Ransack snapped as he accelerated forward and over a large gap in the road, as if he was trying to prove his point. Neither of the two 'Cons believed him for a second though, as they knew better than the arrogant Velocitronian, and more importantly, it was hard to believe it when it sounded like Ransack was trying to convince himself of the very same thing.

* * *

Just a little ways ahead of the three bickering 'Cons, Dearka, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe had just left the ruins area of the track, and were now spinning their tires like mad so that they could cross a new area of the track that was so heavily covered by sand, it would make you think that the track had long since been buried by the massive desert Velocitron's roadways went over. There were more than a few areas of the track that were not this heavily covered, thankfully, and so it was not hard to gain a little traction as they went whenever they lost some, but for the most part, it was like they were racing on a dirt road instead of pavement. The only way they were able to tell that they were still on the same track was by the fact that the entire course was walled in by a large barrier that acted as a way to keep any non-competitors out, and also as a way to keep racers from being thrown off the track if they were not at a certain level of being out of control, or were simply not flying through the air at a great height and speed. Sideswipe had pointed out a few instances where this was the case back in the ruins area of the track when Dearka noticed a couple of the other racers did not fly through the barrier after crashing into one of the extruding structures while others did, and in all honesty, the blonde was immensely glad for that, because he had the toughest time navigating the Verde Buster across the near-dirt race track.

"Argh, this is impossible," Dearka shouted as the Verde Buster crashed into the side of the barrier once again after he had to slow down on a very sharp turn. Thankfully, he was able to get his machine rolling again before Ransack could catch up, something that he attributed to the fact the Verde Buster's vehicle mode was a tank, and as he managed to catch up with Bumblebee and Sideswipe, he had to ask, "How're you guys able to handle such tight corners like that while I just end up spinning out of control until I either stop or just hit the barrier?"

"It's pretty simple actually," Sideswipe explained. "This isn't asphalt, its dirt, and you're trying to maneuver on it like it's the other way around. None of us have three-wheel brakes, so you've got to pitch it hard, break it loose, and then just drive it with the throttle. Give it too much though, and you'll be out of the dirt and through the barrier."

"And for those of us who aren't racing experts," Dearka requested.

"You need to know how to drift in just the right way," Bumblebee clarified. "Simply put, if you're going hard enough left, then you'll find yourself turning right, and vice-versa." Dearka was quick to say that he was still confused, but before Bumblebee could better explain it, he noticed that they were coming up on another right turn like the one they just came out of, and said, "Just watch me."

Bumblebee then accelerated forwards, knowing Dearka was watching his every action, and he then made a sharp right, skidding through the dirt as he did, before he moved his tires to turn left, allowing him to drift along the dirt and through the turn with ease. Sideswipe did the same as Bumblebee had done, just in case Dearka had missed it, and the blonde then smirked and followed the twos actions. He went into the turn like the other two had, and immediately manipulated the controls of his Gundam so that he would be turning in the other direction like the other two had, bracing himself in case he crashed into the wall again as he did. To his shock though, the crash never came, and he had made through the turn with the Verde Buster getting a little dust cover on it, but otherwise unscathed.

"YES," Dearka shouted in victory as he accelerated across the gravel again, catching up to his two Autobot teammates in no time at all. "Thanks you guys."

"Don't mention it," Sideswipe remarked like it was nothing. "That's what teammates are for."

"Agreed, so what do you guys say we help our teammates on Override's team make sure they come out on top of this thing," Bumblebee asked.

"I say, let's race into action," Dearka replied with a smirk, knowing that he was basically just repeating a different version of one of Yzak's first battle cries. Unlike Yzak though, Dearka was quickly met with approving statements from both Autobots, and the blonde immediately knew that if his friend found out, he would be furious.

 _"_ _What? No! No way,"_ Yzak's voice suddenly snapped through the radio, indicating he had heard Dearka, and that said blonde was right in thinking Yzak would be furious. _"That's practically the same thing I said back at the Battle of Heaven's Base, and yet you get what's practically a five-star approval?! What the hell?!"_

"Sorry Yzak," Dearka shrugged as he successfully pulled off another tight turn with Bumblebee and Sideswipe. "But what can I say? It's all in the delivery. You've either got it or you don't."

Everyone could only laugh as Yzak continued to rant and fume at the blonde over the radio for a few minutes before Smokescreen finally took over and reported, _"Well, you guys will happy to hear this. Arcee and the others were able to stop the Combaticons before they could try another sneaky trick, and the race course is all clear for you to shoot straight to the finish."_

"That is good news," Bumblebee exclaimed. "How'd they pull that off?"

 _"_ _We'll have them tell you later,"_ Yzak replied. _"You just focus on getting to the finish line ahead of Ransack for now."_

"You've got it buddy," Dearka nodded, but he still could not help but wonder how Arcee and the others had managed to stop the Combaticons before they had tried anything.

* * *

 **A few moments earlier**

Swindle honestly thought that this was the easiest job he ever had, one that was not even worthy of his skills alone, let alone that of the entire Combaticon team. All he had to do was knock out a few of the Autobots from the race, rendering their teams unable to finish competing, and thus practically handing Velocitron over to Ransack and the Decepticons, and with the 'Bots all so focused on the race, it was practically like shooting fish in a barrel for any one of the Combaticons. At the thought of Ransack though, Swindle had to chuckle at the two-wheeler's attitude towards how they had been doing things thus far in order to guarantee his victory, as well as the fact that Ransack honestly seemed to believe that the Decepticons would only help him gain leadership of his planet and then be on their way. The pathetic sucker had no clue that Galvatron intended to seize Velocitron for himself by any means necessary, and he would eliminate anyone who stood in his way, including Ransack if necessary, and soon after that, it was only a matter of igniting the Dark Energon pocket and letting it run its course through the planet. Earth was already suffering due to the one they had awakened there, so the con-man of the Decepticons was eager to see what would happen to Velocitron when they unleashed the one here. That combined with the idea of the look on Ransack's face when he finally found out how the Decepticons were scamming him was more than enough to get Swindle chuckling like a kid in a candy store.

Of course, had Swindle been focusing on his job instead of indulging in his imaginings of Ransack's face when the two-wheeler found out the truth, he would have noticed that Springer had spotted him and then swooped in to attack before the triple-changer had even fired his guns. Swindle suffered a few hits from Springer's attack, but he was still just as quick to return fire on the Autobot, forcing Springer to spin around in the air before transforming and landing behind cover a few minutes later. "So once again, the big bad Swindle can't seem to play fair, huh," Springer called out from behind his cover as he armed his wrist blaster and prepared to return fire.

"Please," Swindle scoffed. "Nothing in life is fair. The only way to win is to exploit every opening you can get, including the ones that you Autobots would prefer to ignore."

"Keep telling yourself that, 'Con," Springer retorted as he opened fire, only to duck once again when he was attacked from above by both Vortex and Blastoff, and it was not long afterwards that the other Combaticons had arrived on the scene to attack him as well.

"Looks like someone forgot that the Combaticons work as a solid military unit," Onslaught mocked as he transformed and merely glared at Springer while his comrades continued shooting.

"He must've been dumb enough to think that he could take us on his own," Vortex laughed as he continued shooting.

"Who said he was alone," a female voice suddenly shouted out, and only a moment later, Vortex was knocked out of the air by none other than Arcee, who was already racing onto the scene with the Nero Blitz, Skids, and Mudflap right behind her, all of which assumed their bipedal modes the moment they were onsite. The four new arrivals then began to work quickly alongside Springer to keep the Combaticons separate from one and other, rendering each of the 'Cons unable to provide their teammates with support and unable to combine together. It was clear that they were going to be overwhelmed in a matter of minutes due to the sudden arrival of the Autobot team, and thus, Onslaught had to begrudgingly order his team to immediately pull a full retreat from the battle.

"And don't come back, ya punks," Mudflap shouted.

"Yeah, you mess with our pals, then you betta be ready ta mess with the twins," Skids added, trying to sound and act tough as he did. "Oh and by the way, some of them shots, those were for Smokey!"

"Alright we get it already," Nicol muttered from inside his mobile suit, despite the fact that he was smiling in amusement at the twins' antics. He then looked towards the race track as Arcee radioed in a report on their situation to Yzak just in time to see the Verde Buster racing through the dirt along with Bumblebee and Sideswipe. Seeing that his friend was still alright brought a large smile to Nicol's face, and he could not help but sit where he was for a moment to watch as Dearka began to navigate through the race course better and better with each passing second. A minute later, Arcee brought Nicol back to the situation at hand, and the group quickly departed so that they could resume their previous tasks of keeping an eye on the rest of the race while trying to locate the Dark Energon pocket.

* * *

A short while after Yzak had informed Bumblebee of how Arcee's team had chased off the Combaticons, Override, Hot Shot, and Jazz had reached the solid pavement of the final stretch and crossed the finish line, securing a place in the final leg of the race, and now they were all watching with anticipation as Bumblebee's team hit the pavement, followed only a few seconds later by Ransack's. Everyone was now watching with baited breath, as the placement for the remaining slots in the race would be determined by which team was able to obtain more points for them than the other, and the best way for either group to do that would be to have so much as two members of their team finish ahead of all the members of the other's. In other words, if any two members of Bumblebee's group finished ahead of all the members of Ransack's group, then Ransack and the 'Cons would be knocked out of the race completely. This was a fact that Ransack had quickly registered, and he was not about to let that happen.

The two-wheeler proved this in no time as he raced towards the Verde Buster in a near blind fury, and immediately began to assault the Transformer Gundam from the side by slamming into Dearka's machine over and over, jostling the pilot inside. "There's no way I'm letting you punks finish ahead of me," Ransack shouted as he continued to slam into the Verde Buster. "I don't care what I have to do in order to make it happen, I'm bringing all of you punks down now!"

Ransack then swerved to hit the Verde Buster once again, but he was quickly intercepted when Sideswipe suddenly hit the brakes and slammed right back into the two-wheeler in retaliation. "You guys go on ahead," Sideswipe shouted to his teammates. "I'll teach this punk some manners and why it doesn't pay to be a sore loser."

"No way," Dearka protested. "We can't let you do that when you have a better chance than I do of finishing ahead of these guys!"

"Just go," Sideswipe shouted as he and Ransack slammed into each other again. "It's more important to keep the 'Cons from gaining as much as one position in the final leg of the race. Don't worry, I've dealt with much worse than this kid, so you guys just focus on getting across that finish line ahead of the rest of these losers."

Bumblebee hesitated for a few minute before he finally brought his attention to the Verde Buster and said, "You heard the 'Bot. Rev up and roll out!"

Dearka nodded in understanding of this and hit the Verde Buster's throttle to its maximum, blasting it forward alongside Bumblebee. They were just about to see the early signs of the finish line approaching when Bumblebee suddenly hit the brakes and swerved past Dearka, crashing into Knockout before said 'Con could hit the Verde Buster like Ransack had managed to earlier. "Hey, my finish has already suffered enough without you mucking it up any further, thank you very much," Knockout shouted as he slammed into Bumblebee again in retaliation.

Bumblebee ignored the vain 'Con and instead just slammed Knockout as hard as he could, sending Knockout rolling across the pavement and onto the roof of his vehicle mode a minute after the Earth Division commander had hit him. Seeing that the Decepticon was now officially out of the race, Bumblebee then shouted, "Go Dearka!"

"I'm on it," Dearka shouted back, gunning the Verde Buster forward once again, this time with Bumblebee tailing just a short ways behind him. Just a mere few seconds later, the crowds' cheers had reached incredible levels that were loud enough to cause one to nearly go deaf, as Dearka and Bumblebee both blasted across the finish line, effectively earning their team the final slots in the last leg of the race, and knocking Ransack out of it, assuming Sideswipe was able to finish the race ahead of the two-wheeler and his only remaining teammate.

When Ransack saw this, he immediately lost it, and as a result, the next time he slammed off of Sideswipe's side, he immediately pulled back a little and fired a pair of shots from the front of his motorcycle mode, which immediately collided with Sideswipe, causing the Autobot to be sent flying through the air and crashing across the course. The crowd had immediately let out a collective gasp in shock and horror before falling silent at what Ransack had done, but he did not care one bit, as all that mattered to him was that he and Quicksilver had made it across the finish line before Sideswipe had. A second later, Ransack had transformed and begun doing a little victory dance, not paying any mind to the fact that Dearka had climbed out of his mobile suit and raced towards Sideswipe along with the other Autobots, or the fact that the crowd was still completely silent. Eventually though, Ransack did register this fact and glanced around asking, "What? What're you all looking at?"

"RANSACK," Override then shouted, drawing the attention of everyone other than the Autobots to her, and as soon as she had their attention, one could tell just from a small glance in the cheap seats of the stands that Override was far beyond pissed with Ransack. "Do you realize what you have done," Override snarled.

"Uh yeah. I won and I'm moving on to the final leg. You got a problem with that, Princess," Ransack retorted.

"The only thing you're moving on to is a stasis cell," Override shouted. "You have violated one of Velocitron's most sacred and ancient laws by using weapons on a fellow racer during a race and that is a crime that cannot EVER be forgiven!"

Ransack's victorious, smug expression immediately fell at these words, and it was not long afterwards that a group of Velocitron law enforcement agents arrived on the scene to escort him away, much to his heated protest. Sadly, it seemed that Ransack would be avoiding this little trip to prison, as Quicksilver suddenly transformed and dispatched all the guards before grabbing Ransack and racing out of the area before anyone could even blink. Override was furious at this new development, but she was able to keep her cool for a moment and make her way over to where Hot Shot and the others were currently examining Sideswipe. "How is he, Slick," Override asked Hot Shot as soon as she was close enough.

"We're not sure, but we'll know in a minute," Hot Shot admitted as Arcee raced onto the scene with the rest of the _Ogygia_ team right behind her. Arcee then pulled out a medical scanner that she had picked up from the ship after she stopped by on her way back to her patrol route from the battle with the Combaticons, and immediately began running it over Sideswipe's form. She was extremely thankful that Sideswipe had been able to assume his bipedal mode as he rolled across the ground, because otherwise Arcee was not sure if she would have been able to accurately report on his condition. She waved the scanner over Sideswipe for another few seconds before asking Springer for some medical tools that she immediately used as soon as they were in her hands.

Everyone could feel their worry rising as they held their breath, hoping that they were not about to receive bad news, until Arcee finally sighed and said, "He's going to be alright. Nothing too serious at the moment, but we'll need to get him back to the _Ogygia_ if we want it to stay that way."

"Understood," Bumblebee replied, and he immediately ordered Springer to transform and help carry Sideswipe back to their ship in his helicopter mode. The rest of the team then transformed into vehicle mode before moving so that they were directly under the unconscious Sideswipe, and once everyone was in position, they immediately headed back to their ship as fast as they could. Override watched them go for a minute, hoping with all her spark that Sideswipe would be okay while being immensely grateful neither Hot Shot or any of the others had ended up that way, until one of the racing judges approached her and informed her of their decision regarding Ransack's actions.

Override nodded to the judge and immediately moved to the stage by the track so she could address her people, and announced, "The judges have just told me that due to Ransack's illegal actions during the final stretch in this leg of the race, Ransack's team has been disqualified from both this and all future Ultimate Grand Races. Furthermore, I would like to add that due to his crimes, Ransack is now a fugitive from Velocitron law, and must be apprehended at once. Should anyone be found willingly sheltering him, they will face a similar sentence to Ransack's. More importantly though, I have been informed that the racer known as Sideswipe is expected to make a full recovery soon. We shall be taking a few days to allow all the racers still competing to recover from the recent events before beginning the final leg of the Ultimate Grand Race. Thank you all."

The crowd had erupted into cheers once again after Override had told them that Sideswipe would be alright, and that Ransack would be brought to justice for his actions soon enough, and seeing this allowed Override to leave the race track with a small smile on her face. That smile quickly vanished when she found herself worrying about what Ransack would do once he heard about the judges' ruling, because she had a feeling that it would not likely lead to anything good in the near future.

* * *

 ** _AN: Whelp, that's a wrap. I honestly felt like I did not really do the race in this chapter justice, as I feel that I'm better at writing out battle sequences than I am at writing straight up races, even ones like the one in this story, but I put it in here anyways because I wanted to try and show just what sort of thing the 'Bots were going through on Velocitron, which I only touched upon for a moment in the last chapter._**

 ** _Also, I'm sure many of you may recognize some of the Pirates of the Caribbean references that I put in this chapter as well, and I am not ashamed to admit that I did so, because I honestly really like Jack Sparrow. He's awesome and funny. Of course, I also included another reference to another movie in there as well, so see if you can guess what it is, and what it's from. Here's a hint, the movie that it comes from is also a Disney movie._**

 ** _Finally, Ransack's little hissy fit at the end there..._**

 ** _Bumblebee: Yeah, mind explaining that to us? I thought that Ransack would be around at least until we left Velocitron._**

 ** _AN: Well you didn't think I'd have someone who was teaming up with the 'Cons stay inconspicuous for long when he was being shoved into such a corner like that, did you? Ransack was always going to be getting played for a fool by the 'Cons while they made sure they told him how inferior he was compared to them every chance they had, and add in the fact that he was getting bested by our guys, that's bound to cause someone like that to fly off the deep end._**

 ** _Dearka: Well now that he has and escaped with Quicksilver's help, he's more dangerous than ever._**

 ** _AN: That's the idea, as you'll all soon see after I say, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The day of the final leg of the Ultimate Grand Race is here at last, and everyone is on edge both for the race itself, and out of worry of what Ransack will do in response to his banishment from the competition. Override and Hot Shot are among the most worried about this, and it soon turns out that they are all right to be worried. Ransack returns with a vengeance, and accompanying him is none other than Galvatron, Rau Le Creuset, and a small team of the new HorseMan mobile suits. Can Bumblebee and his team handle the arrival of these powerful enemies, or will Galvatron secure another Dark Energon pocket right before their eyes? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 10: Speedway Demons** ** _. Override, Nero Blitz, show the combined strength of a racer's spirit and a warrior's courage to the approaching darkness!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	10. Speedway Demons

_**AN: Hello faithful readers, followers, and fellow authors! I am lyokoMARVELanime, in case it wasn't already obvious, and welcome back to another installment in the grand adventure of the Gundam SEED Prime series! I'll be honest, this chapter was actually pretty fun to write, if not also tiring, and admittedly a bit difficult at one particular point, and not only that, but this is also the longest chapter this story has had to date, so that should make a few people happy since it doesn't seem to just run for a few minutes.**_

 _ **Oh, before I forget, I want to thank everyone who made a contribution to ideas for Kira's battle cry, but in all honesty, I just wasn't feeling any of them. I'm not saying they were all bad, because a lot of them were actually very good, but I just felt that they didn't really seem like something Kira would say in this story or otherwise. Although to be honest, I could not help but feel that a couple of the suggestions I had been given sounded like something out of a Power Rangers series.**_

 _ **Yzak: Why not just ask them what they think of the ideas you've pitched out so far, or even some of the most recent ideas you've had?**_

 _ **AN: Because aside from 'Maximum Velocity', which I am keeping as a good backup, most of those earlier ones were meant to be joke battle cries. I am actually feeling a little tempted to open up a poll of some of the best ideas I've come up with so that you guys can decide on which one you like best, but that will have to wait for another time.**_

 _ **Flay: So can we expect you to hurry this story along any faster, because some of us would like to see what will happen when some of the pilots and the Autobots...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]**_

 _ **Flay: Oh no. [the Patriot Gundam from Shield of the Cosmic Era bursts in and blasts her with its sword-rifle]**_

 _ **AN: For those of you who have yet to see yet, that mobile suit that you just saw is the original Gundam of one Captain America from my newest Gundam SEED crossover story, Shield of the Cosmic Era, which I actually have come up with and am working on with a partner, who you'll learn the identity of if you read the story. Now with all that said, let's roll out!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Speedway Demons**

Ransack was far beyond upset, to put it nicely. The two-wheeler was infuriated to a degree he was not even aware was even possible for him until now. The chance to rule Velocitron was his, he could just feel it at the tips of his fingers, and then those wretched off-worlders that call themselves Autobots had to go and get in the way along with Hot Shot and his pals and ruin everything by forcing him to resort to using his weapons on another racer during a race. Yes, Ransack blamed the Autobots for his breaking Velocitron's most sacred law, and he was now determined to get even with them, Override, and everyone else who had now crossed him, and he made sure to let anyone who could hear him at the moment know that. Unsurprisingly, Ransack's most recent rant on the matter was heard by a now smirking Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset, and the two were more than eager to help out Ransack, for their own reasons of course.

"So you truly wish to take revenge on the Autobots," Galvatron asked. "Do whatever it takes just to see them pay for their misdeeds against you?"

"Oh no," Ransack amended. "Not just them, but everyone on Velocitron as well. It's high time that this planet was brought into a new age of racing, one where weak saps like Override are always weeded out and dismantled slowly so that others can watch it happen, and where only the truly strong can make it onto the race course. I'm done playing by any rules, so why bother playing nice now?"

"Excellent. That's exactly what we were hoping you'd say," Le Creuset stated, gaining a confused look from Ransack. "We'll be more than happy to help you secure your rule of Velocitron, but ask yourself, why stop there? There's an entire universe that could be yours to hold in the palm of your hand, whole new worlds on which you could prove that you are faster than anyone or anything in existence, and you only need to do one simple thing to gain the chance to have all of that."

"Tell me," Ransack demanded, eager at the idea of gaining exactly what the masked man had offered. "Tell me what I have to do!"

"Swear your allegiance to us and the Decepticon cause," Galvatron stated. "That's all you have to do, and the chance to have the universe as your race track will be yours."

Ransack looked between the two for a few minutes, thinking about all that they had offered him and all he had seen of their forces since the two-wheeler first met these two beings from other worlds. Ransack could not deny that these two did indeed have vast numbers and powers at their command, the kind that would allow them to do exactly what they claimed they would do, so with all this in mind, Ransack found that there was only one answer he could give to them if he really wanted what he was asking for. "I'll do whatever you ask of me," he said.

"Then prove your loyalty," Galvatron stated with a sinister grin. "Kneel before Galvatron."

The reaction was instantaneous, as Ransack was immediately kneeling down on one knee before the massive Decepticon warlord, much to Galvatron and Le Creuset's joy, and with that simple action, the Decepticons had now gained a new warrior. Le Creuset then tapped his comm. link, and a minute later, a number of HorseMan mobile suits came through a purple colored Space Bridge as the masked man said, "Now let us go and show your world the true strength of your new allies, Ransack."

"With pleasure," Ransack grinned. Just before they could move towards the exit though, something else burst through the Space Bridge with a mighty roar, and the three immediately spun around to see that the Predacon had now joined them on Velocitron.

"I thought I had ordered Starscream to keep the beast under control," Galvatron snarled.

"That's actually much harder than you think, Lord Galvatron," Starscream's voice moaned, and the three looked to see that said Seeker was lying on the ground, tied to a chain that was clearly meant to keep the Predacon from taking off on its own, and looking rather worse for wear. Quicksilver was quick to rush to his master's side while Galvatron and Le Creuset barely suppressed looks of amusement at Starscream's predicament, an action that Knockout made no such attempts to follow as he openly laughed at Starscream.

"Lord Galvatron," Quicksilver then said. "Perhaps having the Predacon here may prove to be beneficial for us. It could allow us to show the Velocitronians why we are unlike any other force the universe has ever known, and why they would be fools to stand against us."

Galvatron thought over this proposal for a minute before he finally nodded in agreement with this plan and then left with Le Creuset and Ransack to discuss the plans for their attack. Once the three and Knockout were out of audio receptor range, Starscream looked to his apprentice and asked, "Why would you suggest allowing the beast to remain here with us?"

"I just find that the Predacon may be much more than an average beast," Quicksilver shrugged. "After all, why would it suddenly decide to come rushing through the Space Bridge like that?"

"It's a mindless monster that craves battle and battle alone," Starscream reminded his apprentice. "It likely got bored after not having felt the rush of a fight for so long and took the first chance it found to get it." Starscream then saw the look that Quicksilver had adopted, and instantly knew that his apprentice was likely sympathizing with the Predacon because he felt that the situation the beast was in was similar to the one Quicksilver had been in back on Cybertron before the war had begun. With this in mind, Starscream placed a hand on Quicksilver's shoulder and said, "I can understand why you feel you should sympathize with the beast, Quicksilver, but keep in mind, that thing is an animal, created from the fossilized remains of savage creatures that had died out eons ago. It's situation is far different from your own, so don't let it trouble you too much my young apprentice."

Quicksilver glanced between his master and the Predacon for a minute until he finally nodded in consent of what Starscream said. The two then left the room so that they could make their own preparations for the attack, deciding that they would call in one of the other 'Cons that had remained loyal to Starscream after Galvatron's arrival for assistance, never once noticing how the Predacon was watching everyone in the room like it was studying them and its new surroundings.

* * *

The day of the final round in the Ultimate Grand Race came much sooner than anyone participating in the race had expected, and the public was ecstatic with the excitement on what the final results in the race would be, though it was also partially due to the fact of just who was competing in the race. The line-up of racers had been announced to be Override, Hot Shot, Jazz, Bumblebee, Dearka in the Verde Buster, and a now fully recovered Smokescreen, who was taking Sideswipe's place after Arcee determined that Sideswipe should take it easy for a long while before he even considered getting out of bed again, let alone racing. Were it any other time, the six would likely have all agreed to treat this event like any other race, however, given all that had happened since the second leg had ended, they were all very much on edge. There had not been so much as one hint of Ransack or the Decepticons since both had disappeared at the end of the second leg, and the Autobots all knew that was more than likely a bad sign, so they were taking every precaution that they could to make sure that the final round of this race was as protected as Fort Knox, or at least as close to it as they could manage.

The only ones who would not be covering the track in some way when the race finally got underway would be Yzak and Sideswipe, who would watch over things from the _Ogygia_ , so now all they had to do was make sure that the ones competing in the race were as ready for anything that could happen as possible. This had actually led to a particular topic being raised which caused Hot Shot and Clocker to end up in a very heated argument for reasons that none of the recently arrived Autobots and their human allies could understand. "Clocker, I keep telling you we may not have a choice. I have to use it," Hot Shot stated in the most recent round of said argument.

"No way," Clocker protested. "It's too dangerous, and I'm not gonna let you risk your life like that."

"Okay seriously, someone explain how bringing up an afterburner booster would cause such a big argument between those two," Dearka finally said.

"Sometime after we first got involved in helping to keep Ransack from winning the Ultimate Grand Race and gaining rule over Velocitron, Clocker had built a special booster for Hot Shot that would make him able to keep pace with Override to the point where it would come down to a photo-finish, and keep Ransack off our tails," Sideswipe explained from where he was currently sitting on the medical bed. "When he first tried it out though, there were a few problems with it, namely the fact that the speed boost was so great that it was beyond Hot Shot's control and it caused him to lose all of his ability to drive properly in vehicle mode. Thankfully he was able to stop before anything serious had happened by transforming into robot mode and skidding to a stop, and afterwards, Clocker and the twins began working to perfect the booster."

"At least until the last time we tested the thing," Mudflap cut in. "Everything had been smooth sailing at first, but then the thing suddenly went all out of whack and nearly caused our boy Hot Shot to lose his life by throwing him off the side of the track and to the desert ground bellow. Clocker immediately freaked out, even though Hot Shot came out of it relatively unscathed, and immediately stopped all work on the thing, saying that he would help Hot Shot train to the point where he would never need to consider using the thing again."

"You ask me though, the kid got cold feet because his little toy almost caused someone to get hurt real bad," Skids finished.

"Well it certainly seems that way, and I can't say that I blame him for feeling that way," Bumblebee said in response as he watched the two friends continue to argue.

Feeling that he had finally had enough of this, Nicol then stepped forward and said, "Clocker, don't worry. Everything will be fine if you let Hot Shot use that booster."

"No it won't," Clocker protested. "He almost died the last time he used it, and that never would have happened if I had never made the thing and insisted that it was ready in the first place! I don't want Hot Shot to put himself at risk like that."

"You do realize that we'll be putting ourselves at risk anyways since we're half-expecting the 'Cons to show up and start something at the race, right," Yzak asked as though Clocker were an idiot, only to receive an elbow in the side from Dearka.

"Shut up and let Nicol handle this," Dearka whispered. "Because you're definitely not helping matters saying stuff like that."

Nicol rolled his eyes at his two friends before he said, "I know you're scared of what might happen Clocker, but if Hot Shot's willing to put his faith in you and your invention then you shouldn't let that fear stop you from trusting him to use it at least as nothing more than a last resort."

"How can I do that though," Clocker asked. "Letting Hot Shot use that booster makes me feel like I'd be signing his death warrant, and I don't want to lose him or any of you guys. Hot Shot's more than just another teammate or racer to me, all of these guys are. They're my friends, my heroes, and I don't want to be the one responsible for ending their lives like that."

Hot Shot immediately fell quiet at this. He always knew that Clocker looked up to him and his team since they had first met him after landing on Velocitron, but he had no idea that the young 'Bot's admiration went this far. To be honest, Hot Shot felt flattered by this, not for the reasons he did whenever any of the other, faceless citizens of the planet greeted and worshipped him, Sideswipe, Skids, and Mudflap said similar things to them, but because he knew that Clocker truly meant what he was saying, and that the feeling was truly genuine enough for the young mech to never falter in his beliefs of them. Hot Shot did not know what to say in response to this, but fortunately, Nicol did. "It's because he knows that you look up to them so much that Hot Shot is willing to put so much faith in your invention and go so far to protect your world," the green haired pilot told Clocker. "He doesn't want to let you down, so he's willing to risk his life if necessary to make sure that your world remains the peaceful place that you've come to know all your life."

Clocker looked between Nicol and Hot Shot, letting the pilot's words run through his processor for a few minutes, until he finally sighed and walked over to his work bench to pull out a contraption that looked like an improved version of the afterburners Hot Shot's vehicle mode normally had. He then glanced at Hot Shot, who immediately nodded and transformed into vehicle mode, and then carefully attached the device to the back of Hot Shot's car mode while he said, "Just promise me you'll be careful and only use it if you absolutely have to."

When the device was finally in place, Hot Shot reassumed his bi-pedal mode and gave Clocker a serious yet reassuring look as he replied, "You have my word, Clocker. There's no way I'm letting down my biggest fan now or ever."

Clocker smiled happily in response to this before he finally gave Hot Shot an unexpected hug, which he soon returned after a hesitant minute. The others could only smile at the sight of the bond between the two being enforced by this simple action, and they now felt their confidence about the upcoming events rising while their determination to keep everything peaceful did the same. Still, they were all a bit worried about what would happen when the race finally began, and it was just enough for Yzak to put out a call to Earth just as the six race participants left the ship.

* * *

At long last, the final round of the Ultimate Grand Race was about to begin, and the crowd was ecstatic at the anticipation for the start of one of the most intense races they had ever seen in their lives. Down on the track, each of the six racers who were competing were all revving up their engines, running last minutes checks on all their systems, and bracing themselves for both the race and anything else that may occur in the next few moments if not the next few seconds. Override was not doing as much on the last one as the others though, as she was more concerned with what Ransack might try and did not give much thought to the Decepticons, but the leader of Velocitron was about to find out that was going to be a very grave error on her part.

 _"Femme and mechs alike,"_ the race announcer called out over the speakers. _"This is it! The moment you've all been waiting for, the final face off, the last course, the ultimate face-off; that's right, this is the final round of the Ultimate Grand Race, and the racers are revved up and ready to roll, so let's not stall any longer! Ultimate Grand Race competitors, start. Your. Engines!"_

At once, the six racers were all gearing up their engines to maximal power, signifying that they were ready anytime everyone else was and just itching to get started, and the announcer took that as his cue to continue. _"On your marks…get set…and…"_

"HOLD IT," someone suddenly shouted, silencing all cheers and causing the racers to cool their exhausts for a minute. A second later, Ransack suddenly just strolled out onto the track like it was no big deal, even as the security forces of Velocitron swarmed down to detain him. Ransack only smirked a little at said security forces before he finally stated, "People of Velocitron, it's high time you finally received the leader you all deserve. One who is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to obtain what he wants, and who will ensure that Velocitron is what it was always meant to be."

"If you're talking about yourself then you're out of luck, Ransack," Override shouted as she transformed into her bi-pedal mode. "Or did you forget that you've been disqualified from this and all other Ultimate Grand Races?"

"Oh Override, you poor naïve little girl," Ransack openly mocked as he shook his head. "Whoever said that winning a race was the best way to determine everything? Sometimes, you've got to fight to get what you want, and that's exactly what I intend to do."

"Oh really? You and what army," Override then asked, not knowing that Dearka had slapped his forehead in response to her question because he knew that one should never ask that particular question.

The reason why made itself apparent, as Override was suddenly shot from behind, while the stands were assaulted by a barrage of energon blasts, prompting all the Autobots and Gundam pilots to transform and prepare for battle just as the attackers made themselves known. A minute later, the Combaticons, Knockout, Quicksilver, Starscream, and the Advocate Gundam all appeared on the scene along with a vast swarm of HorseMan mobile suits, and a female Decepticon that looked like a stronger version of Slipstream with armor that was colored in light and dark shades of purple. Soon after these forces had landed and secured the area, they made sure that the Autobots on the track could see plain as day that the people in the audience were now hostages, forcing Bumblebee to order the others to stand down for the moment, and as soon as they had, Galvatron strolled onto the track with a sinister smirk on his face as he gazed upon Override and Bumblebee.

"Optimus was a fool to entrust his pathetic scout and the Z.A.F.T. pilot who faced more defeats in battle than any other to lead this team of Autobots," Galvatron commented as he paced around Bumblebee and the others who were being forced down on their knees, his gaze wandering slowly over each one of them before it finally stopped on Override. "And you, the great Override of Velocitron. I'll admit, I never imagined a femme to be a capable leader for an entire planet, and it seems that I was right to have never done so. You are pathetic, and you've caused your world to become just as pathetic and weak as you are. That won't be a problem for much longer though, as Velocitron will now belong to Ransack, and by extension, to me, and the planet will then be purified by the Dark Energon reservoir that it contains."

"Sadly, none of you shall ever see that happen," Le Creuset said as he aimed the Advocate's guns directly at the Verde Buster's cockpit. "It's a shame actually. I really did believe that you and the others had great potential, Dearka."

Dearka only smirked from inside his cockpit before he replied, "More than you think, you lousy zombie!"

Le Creuset became confused as to why Dearka did not seem the least bit afraid, and that confusion then doubled when both he and some of his HorseMans were suddenly hit by a series of beam blasts and missile strikes. Looking to the source, the Decepticons immediately spotted the Blu Duel and Springer flying down from above them as they continued to fire on them, and they immediately began to retaliate by returning fire. As they were doing this, they never noticed that Arcee and the Nero Blitz had swiftly and silently taken out the guards that were keeping the audience from leaving, giving the civilians the chance they needed to get away safely, and allowing Arcee to signal the others that the civilians were clear.

As soon as Bumblebee saw his girlfriend's signal, he nodded to the others and the Autobots and the Verde Buster immediately jumped to their feet and began their counterattack, either by punching, kicking, or just flat out blasting anything that sided with the Decepticons. Seeing that their enemies were now fighting back, Starscream looked to the lone female among the Decepticons at the moment and shouted, " **Banshee** , kill them!"

"How about giving me something that's a little challenging," Banshee replied with an overconfident wave of her hand before she charged in to attack Override, who was still on her knees. Thankfully, Hot Shot was able to jump in and intercept the 'Con, saving Override from any further harm before he pulled the Velocitronian leader out of the line of fire while he fired off a few rounds from his wrist blaster. Banshee was about to charge in again when the Nero Blitz cut her off by grabbing her with its Variable Arm Units, but Banshee was quick to release a sonic blast to free herself from Nicol's grasp and immediately retaliated by firing a few rounds from her Null Ray rifle at the vanishing Gundam, which stayed true to its name and vanished in a second thanks to its Mirage Colloid.

As she looked on at what was happening, Override could not help but hear Galvatron's words echoing in her processor. She soon found she was asking herself if she really was responsible for letting this happen, and even wondering what she could have done to have made sure that her people were stronger and ready for such a thing, all while hanging her helm in shame until Hot Shot shouted at her in an attempt to get her attention. As soon as Override had given it to him, Hot Shot stated, "Don't let Galvatron get to you, Override. That's just what he wants, and what he's best at. If you let his words affect you too greatly, then you'll be letting him win before the battle's even started. I know for a fact that you're a great leader, the kind of leader that Velocitron deserves, so are you going to sit there letting that Decepti-creep mess with your processor, or are you going to show that you know when it's time to race and when it's time to fight?"

Override stared at Hot Shot in shock, truly surprised that he held her in such high regard, until she slowly stood up and smirked as she replied, "What do you think, Slick?" A minute later, Override had pulled her backpack off and changed it into a twin-barrel gun that she immediately aimed directly at the one who had started this whole mess for her world, and as soon as she had this person locked in her sights, Override immediately shouted, "Hey Ransack! Eat Afterburner Blaze!"

Ransack glanced in Override's direction just in time to see Override pull the trigger on her weapon, firing a pair of orange flames directly at him. Thankfully, he was able to dodge the first blast, but the second one had struck home with no problems at all, and that was all the reason Ransack needed to unfold his own blaster so that he could return fire. The starting line of the race course had now effectively become a battleground, as the Nero Blitz continued to trade blows with Banshee, the Verde Buster and Blu Duel took on Starscream and Quicksilver, Springer commenced a dog-fight with Vortex and Blast Off, and everyone else fought against whoever was left along with the seemingly endless numbers of HorseMans that were swarming the area. "How did these guys get mobile suits like those anyways," Jazz asked as he delivered a spin kick into one of said mobile suits before firing his blaster on another three and Brawl.

Before anyone could answer, a terrifying sound reached everyone's ears and audio receptors, just as a sudden, fiery glow lit up the area that the Smokescreen, Skids, Mudflap, and Arcee had been standing in. You did not need to be a genius to figure out what was coming for them, and the minute that she had realized it, Arcee shouted to the other three, "TAKE COVER, NOW!"

They just barely avoided the fire blast that struck the ground they had been standing on mere minutes ago, but they were now wishing that they had been on that ground, as it would have been far more merciful than the monstrosity that was now descending upon them all. "It's the Predacon," Dearka shouted as he broke off his long-range assault on Swindle and Onslaught in order to direct all his fire on the dragon-like beast that was now rocketing towards them.

Smokescreen and the twins were quick to join the blonde in firing on said beast, but the Predacon just shook off all the blasts like they were nothing, gave a feral roar, and tackled the Verde Buster beneath its massive, metal claws. The Predacon gazed down at the Verde Buster with its vicious, yellow optics, almost as though it were analyzing the machine that was currently pinned beneath it, and then raised its claws to commence tearing into the suit in the same manner that it had the Destiny and the Impulse. Thankfully, that proved to be more difficult than the beast was probably expecting, as the Verde Buster was able to hold up rather well against the vicious attacks. Granted it was not to the point that the Gundam suffered no damage at all, but it was just enough for Dearka to be able to keep on fighting, and as such he had no trouble in blasting the beast off of him by firing a barrage from his shoulder mounted missile launchers. Unfortunately, this seemed to only anger the mechanical beast, as it renewed its attack by firing another powerful fire blast directly into the Verde Buster's chest. Yzak had quickly spotted this and commenced firing on the beast so that he could give his friend a chance to move away, and then prepared to launch his own attack on the Predacon until he heard Bumblebee shouting, "All units, fall back! Fall back! We can't take that thing! Fall back now!"

"Hold your positions! I repeat, do NOT retreat just yet," a new voice suddenly shouted, and soon after, there was an explosion of energon on the Predacon's head and neck, a series of similar blasts tearing through several of the enemy mobile suits, and a flash of red that tackled Galvatron away from Bumblebee, just as said warlord was about to attack the leader of the Autobot Earth Division.

Nearly the entire team had gasped in shock at the sight of the person who had given this order and the three that had just shown up immediately after said order was given, but Yzak only smirked as he said, "I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever show up, Zala!"

A minute later, the Infinite Justice and Strike Freedom Gundams had charged into the battle, guns blazing, while they left Optimus Prime to clash with Galvatron, and this time, the last Prime made sure that he was ready for the reborn leader of the Decepticons by bringing the Star Saber with him. Galvatron only snarled at the sight of the three new arrivals before he jumped back onto the stands and then leapt into the air as he pulled out the Dark Star Saber in order to unleash its furry against his old foe. Thankfully, Optimus was ready for this as he intercepted the evil blade with a burst of energy from his own, and he then whipped out his Minigun to commence firing a rapid barrage on Galvatron.

Smokescreen had to smirk a little at the sight as he blasted away another group of HorseMans just as the Infinite Justice had cut down another group that was attempting to hit him from behind. As soon as the red Gundam had dealt with the attackers and moved so that it was back-to-back with him, Smokescreen looked to the machine that his human partner piloted and asked, "How'd you guys get here so fast? I thought that the conditions on Earth were making it impossible for you to send any help to us."

"We've got Ground Bridge Portals at both the PLANTs and the moon bases, Smokescreen. We can get past a bit of bad weather and launch a ship into a Space Bridge easily if we don't go directly from Earth's surface," Athrun reminded Smokescreen with a small smirk. He then blasted a HorseMan and Starscream with one of his Gundam's arm blasters before he added, "Plus, Yzak called us this morning, so we had plenty of time to get a ship ready before all this started."

Smokescreen nodded in acceptance of this before bringing his full attention back to the battle, all the while never noticing how Override was now staring at the three new arrivals in disbelief due to how sudden their appearance was and how powerful a trio of warriors they all seemed to be. It honestly made her wonder where all these Autobots kept coming from, effectively beginning to slowly erode any doubts she had about Hot Shot's claim that he and his friends were all from Cybertron, with the exception of the humans of course. She did not spend too much time thinking about it, as she had to quickly bring her focus back to the situation at hand when Banshee suddenly fired a blast from her Null Ray at both her and Hot Shot, prompting the two racers to return fire in response. "Would you two just roll over and die already," Banshee shrieked in anger.

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen," Override responded as she fired another pair of blasts from her blaster. The shots may not have hit their target, but they did not need to, as Hot Shot was able to score a devastating blow against Banshee, effectively knocking the female 'Con out of the sky. "Nice shooting Slick," Override told Hot Shot.

"I guess we make a great team on and off the race track, huh," Hot Shot remarked.

"Yeah…we sure do," Override softly agreed with a small blush finding its way to her face in response to Hot Shot's comment.

Yzak had overheard a bit of the two's conversation from where he was and just rolled his eyes in response before he finally managed to knock the Predacon off him with the Blu Duel's arm blade that was soon followed by a quick burst from the Mobile Railgun on its right shoulder. The beast shook its head to clear its dazed state before it roared again and prepared to charge Yzak, only to be cut off by a quick series of blasts from the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs. While he said the bit-type weapons to keep the beast at bay, Kira flew the Strike Freedom up to the Blu Duel and shouted, "I'll take care of this guy, Yzak. You go handle your former commander."

"With pleasure," Yzak smirked as he turned his attention to the Advocate just as it bashed Mudflap into Skids with a large, wrist blade. "Nicol, let's kick that zombie's ass back into Hell where he belongs!"

"You've got it," Nicol agreed as he flew after the Advocate alongside the Blu Duel. The two friends then engaged Le Creuset with everything they had as the Advocate seemed to struggle a bit against the two. When Le Creuset tried to use his machine's DRAGOONs to confuse the two, Nicol merely used the Nero Blitz's Variable Arms to reflect the blasts right back into the bit-type weapons, giving Yzak the chance to vault over and deliver a powerful slash on the Advocate with a beam saber and one of the Blu Duel's arm blades. Yzak was then quick to engage Le Creuset in sword combat, matching his former commander blow for blow as best as he could, but it was pretty clear that the silver-haired pilot was at a slight disadvantage against the masked man.

"So the mighty, Ultimate Coordinator would rather face a beast and send you to fight me in his stead," Le Creuset shouted as he collided his Gundam's blade with the Blu Duel's. "It must truly irritate you to have to follow such a coward, Yzak."

"Shut it! You're the one who's a coward since your too scared to face death alone, right to the point where you'd rather just make sure that you bring down everyone else with you," Yzak shouted in response as he pushed Le Creuset back. He then had his machine leap into the air, revealing the Nero Blitz's vehicle mode rushing right towards the Advocate until the van collided directly into the enemy Gundam. The Nero Blitz the continued over the Advocate, transformed back into bi-pedal mode, and then rolled to its feet as it whipped out its arm blasters and fired on the Advocate while the Blu Duel did the same from the air.

Le Creuset only laughed at his former subordinates' efforts as he replied to Yzak's early statement by saying, "One cannot fear anything if he lacks a soul as I do, and for that reason, you shall both fall before me!"

"That's what you think, psycho," Dearka's voice suddenly called out, and a minute later, a number of blasts hit the Advocate effortlessly and any HorseMans that were about to come to Le Creuset's aid, courtesy of the Verde Buster.

As Galvatron clashed the Dark Star Saber against Optimus's sword once more, he spotted that very moment when Le Creuset was hit by the Verde Buster's attack, along with the subsequent attacks from the Blu Duel and the Nero Blitz, and a quick glance around the battlefield showed him that none of his other forces were fairing any better. Realizing this, Galvatron could only snarl as he pushed Optimus off his sword once again and then kicked the Prime away before he transformed into his jet mode and shouted, "Decepticons, retreat!"

The reaction was instantaneous, as every Decepticon quickly broke off their respective battles and made to follow their leader towards a recently opened Decepticon Space Bridge, including Ransack. However, it seemed that not all of Galvatron's forces were intent on following his order to retreat, as the Predacon continued to fight on against the Strike Freedom, which was barely holding its own against the beast. Seeing that their friend was in trouble, Bumblebee, Athrun, and Optimus all took the lead in rushing over to aid Kira in fighting against the Predacon for what little good it could do, until Galvatron shouted, "Starscream, command the beast to return NOW!"

"Of course, _master_ ," Starscream snarled as he turned nervously towards the Predacon. He then produced a shock rod which he jabbed into the Predacon as soon as he received an opening and shouted, "Go on! Get into the Space Bridge you mindless monster!"

The Predacon only snarled at Starscream in response before it turned its head around to gaze across the battlefield, quickly registering that it was the only one fighting besides Starscream. Seeing this, the Predacon let out another roar before it spread its massive wings and took off to follow the other Decepticons into the Space Bridge, leaving a greatly relieved Starscream to follow in its tracks. When the enemy Space Bridge finally closed behind the attacking forces, everyone immediately gathered together with the first question coming from Athrun as he asked, "You alright Kira?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kira confirmed. "The Strike Freedom might need a few repairs when we get back, but nothing too serious." Kira then brought his attention to the Autobots who had been sent to Velocitron in the first place and asked, "What about you guys? Are you alright?"

"We'll live, pal," Bumblebee spoke up for his team, getting nods of agreement from the other Autobots on said team in response to this.

"We might have to make a few repairs to our own machines, but thankfully us pilots are still in one piece," Yzak then reported.

"That is most welcoming news Autobots and young pilots," Optimus then nodded with a smile.

Override could only watch the group continue talking for a few minutes before she finally smirked and glanced to the one Autobot who was not taking part in the conversation as she said, "You've got a lot of crazy and interesting friends, Slick, but they're also really brave and tough too. It must feel like a great honor to be considered one of them."

"You have no idea, Override," Hot Shot confirmed with a smile as he watched everyone converse happily. The conversation soon came to an end when Optimus turned his attention to the two racers and walked over to them with Kira following right behind him after climbing out of the Strike Freedom.

"Override, I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and Cybertron," Optimus introduced as soon as he was standing before the Velocitronian leader.

"And my name's Kira Yamato, leader of the Gundam Team from planet Earth," Kira added. "Sorry we couldn't get here sooner, and we both hope that what happened today hasn't damaged yours and your people's views of us, but most importantly, we just hope that everyone's okay."

"Don't sweat it too much kid," Override replied with a casual wave. "They'll probably be a little disappointed that the race will be a bit delayed while the track is being repaired, but since that shouldn't take too long, I doubt that anyone will be too upset. To be honest, I think you guys have actually started to get me to start considering you might really be serious about the whole 'being from Cybertron' thing."

Kira and the others all smiled in response to hearing Override admit this. From that statement and their victory in today's battle, they could all immediately tell that what started out as a bad day was now quickly becoming much better, and it was only going to keep getting better by the minute.

* * *

A few hours later when the streets and stands were all completely repaired, the crowd had gathered back into their seats once more and was now cheering as loudly and excitedly as they were before, only this time, their excitement was even greater as the race between six different racers had now become a one-on-one face-off between the two fastest racers on Velocitron. Since the Decepticon threat was now no longer an immediate problem, the Autobots felt that there was no need for all of them to continue participating, and as a result, each Autobot that was competing in the race had dropped out except for Hot Shot, who was now gearing up for a race against Override in the true final round of the Ultimate Grand Race. As the team sat up in the VIP section of the stands, Arcee looked to Bumblebee and asked, "You sure you're okay about letting him have this all to himself?"

"Of course," Bumblebee nodded. "I mean sure, it was pretty fun racing out there like that, and I wouldn't mind doing it again with all of you guys just for fun, but this race belongs to Hot Shot and Hot Shot alone. Besides, if you want to talk to someone who's disappointed about dropping out of the race, then allow me to direct you to Smokescreen."

"Hey," Smokescreen cried out indignantly, having overheard the couple.

"You know it's your own fault for that one, Smokescreen. After all, you're the one who decided to go with a racecar as his vehicle mode," Athrun chuckled at his friend's expense.

"Gee, thanks a lot _partner_ ," Smokescreen told Athrun with heavy sarcasm and equally heavy emphasis on the last word.

"Now if only Override were completely convinced of what we've been trying to tell her," Springer added.

"Well that's something that we'll have to leave up to Hot Shot," Nicol remarked. He then gained a small smile and said, "At least some of us found a way to stay in the race without getting in Hot Shot's way."

Down at the starting line, Dearka found himself strapped securely into the driver's seat of Hot Shot's vehicle mode while Yzak was in the same position inside of Override's. When the others had dropped out of the race, Hot Shot had asked Dearka if he wanted to stay in by acting as his co-pilot, and Dearka immediately agreed so long as it was okay with Override. Override was happy to allow it so long as one of the other Gundam pilots served as a co-pilot for her, and surprisingly, Yzak immediately volunteered for the job, saying that he wanted to see just how good Dearka really was on the racetrack. As the blonde checked over Hot Shot's systems, the Autobot asked, "Are you sure you're okay with this, Dearka? I mean, there's a chance that it might not be all that safe for you."

"Hey, I've fought in two wars alongside the other Autobots against 'Cons, enemy mobile suits, and battleships from both Earth and Transformer origin, plus I already participated in an early round of this race," Dearka reminded Hot Shot with an easy-going smirk. "Don't worry about me too much and just focus on the track. You've got this."

 _"We'll just see about that,"_ Yzak's voice called out over Dearka's comm. link. _"By the end of this race, I'll have made sure that the only thing you guys have got is our dust to eat."_

"Bring it on then Yzak," Dearka told his old friend with a challenging smirk.

"Sounds like these two are ready for action, so you'd better give it your all this time, Slick," Override suddenly said, adding her voice to the conversation. "I know full well that you've taken it easy in these races to make sure that Ransack didn't win them, but this time, it's just you and me on the track, and I don't want you holding anything back. Unless you give it everything you've got this time, I won't accept any victory or loss that this race may dish out."

Hot Shot was silent for a minute after he had heard Override said that, and a minute later, Dearka could tell that the Autobot was smirking as he replied, "You've got it, Override, but if that is the case, then let's make a little bet. If I win this, then you let us have one chance to do whatever we deem is necessary to prove to you once and for all that Cybertron is real, and if you win, we'll just leave you alone on the matter until it eventually proves itself to you in some other way on its own."

Override had to honestly think about this deal for a few minutes, but in the end, she still felt that it was a reasonable agreement so she gladly accepted, and the two racers and their human co-pilots then geared up for one of the most important races in Velocitron history. After another agonizing few minutes, the start signal sounded, and the two racers shot off like rockets, the roar of the crowd resonating in their audio receptors as they tore down the first part of the track at high speeds that would make the fastest racecar drivers on Earth extremely jealous. The first part of the track was actually rather smooth, with nothing but pure asphalt, tight, hairpin turns, and long stretches of road between the two racers, but eventually it began to get a little more extreme as the tight turns began to become more numerous to the point where they would literally be going into a turn the very second after they came out of another, this did not slow down either Hot Shot or Override, as they were both able to navigate the twists and turns with ease at their fastest possible speed, easily keeping pace with one another the entire time.

Eventually, the road began to become a little more narrow, making it more difficult for either of them to pass the other without the use of the small slopes up the sides of the walls of the road, a fact that Hot Shot was quick to exploit a few times already when Override managed to pull ahead of him. When the two raced into a curved tunnel, Dearka spotted something on his readouts and immediately informed his racing partner, "We've got a fork in the road coming up in a matter of seconds. The left path is easier to navigate through but is also much longer, while the right is shorter but with more obstacles to get around. The road for both paths is so narrow that you won't be able to pass Override at all if she gets ahead of you until after we've gotten out of the tunnel, and the race system is set up so that only one of you will be able to take one of the two paths, so you'll have to make a move to stay ahead of her soon."

"Not to worry, Dearka. I've got this," Hot Shot reassured the blonde. The blue and yellow colored Autobot then gunned his accelerator to its near maximum, and then used the sloped walls of the tunnel to drive up the sides of the wall to the point where he was driving on the very ceiling itself until he was just ahead of Override by a few inches as he finally came back down onto the road. When they came to the fork in the road, Hot Shot immediately knew that it would not matter which path she took, as Override could easily make it through to the other side at the exact same time he would if he took the shorter path, so knowing that he would lose a lot of ground by taking the longer path, he immediately swerved down to the right, which sealed up just a second before Override and Yzak had blasted down to the left.

"Damn it," Yzak cursed. "I'll admit that little move he pulled back there to get ahead of us was cool, but now they'll have a strong lead by the time we get out of this tunnel."

"Don't count us out just yet, Yzak," Override reassured her co-pilot. "I can get us through here just as quickly as we could've gotten through on that other path, and Hot Shot knows that."

Yzak could only smirk in small, early triumph at this knowledge, and allowed Override to put metal to the pedal as they rocketed down the longer pathway, already imagining the look on Dearka's face when they came out of the tunnel at either the exact moment or seconds after the blonde and Hot Shot had.

* * *

From up in the stands, the Autobots were all cheering with great excitement, save for Kira and Optimus only smiled widely at the race that was unfolding before them, as the two racers and their human partners blasted down their respective paths in the tunnel. If he were a betting man, Kira would actually be amazed if the odds on both racers were not evenly matched to the point that anyone betting on either of the two would find everything split cleanly in half on who would win in the end. That did not mean that he was going to start making any bets like the others were.

"I'm telling you, Override and Yzak are going to win this, no problem," Skids insisted. "Nothing personal against Hot Shot or anything, but Override's got more experience in these races and she's got a military commander acting as her co-pilot."

"Yeah, a military commander who's also a total hot-head that hates to lose against anyone," Smokescreen argued with his old classmate. "If anyone's got this it's Hot Shot and Dearka."

"I've got to agree with Smokescreen on that," Bumblebee stated. "Dearka has often been a bit more level-headed than Yzak, which is to be expected of someone that specializes in long-range combat like he does, and Hot Shot's been holding back in these races until now. Plus he was the fastest in our class, to the point where some even went as far to say that he would be an even match against Jazz in a race."

"Oh really? Well how about you put your money where your mouth is," Jazz stated as they watched the two blast out of the tunnel and onto the wide, open roadway at nearly the exact same moment. "I'll bet you a week of my monitor duty shifts at both the New Iacon Base, and the Autobot Base on Cybertron that Override and Yzak will be the ones who win this."

"You're on," Bumblebee stated with a confident smirk. "And I'll be looking forward to avoiding monitor duty when Hot Shot and Dearka completely smoke Override and Yzak."

"Slice me up a piece of that action," Arcee then said. "Only I say that it'll be a photo-finish that Hot Shot and Dearka end up winning."

"I'll bet all of you guys that it'll be a photo-finish that Override and Yzak wins even if Hot Shot uses that booster that Clocker made for him," Nicol then added.

Athrun could only smirk for a minute before he said, "Same as Nicol, only difference being that Hot Shot and Dearka win with the booster."

Kira could only shake his head at his friends in amusement before bringing his full attention back the race. In all honesty, Kira was doing his best to stop himself from putting in a bet of his own, and from the corner of his eye, Kira was somehow able to tell that the same could actually be said for Optimus as well. The thought of a Prime actually gambling was actually rather amusing to Kira, especially in the case of Optimus, right to the point that he could not help but laugh at the thought, much to everyone's mild confusion. After letting Kira have his little moment of chuckles, they all just shrugged it off and looked back to the race, each of the ones who had placed a bet hoping that they would win.

* * *

Down on the track, the two racers were now practically neck-in-neck as they approached the final obstacle in the course before they came to the long, final straight stretch of the race, and the only comment Dearka had after observing said obstacle for a minute was simply, "This is what I call a loop."

Indeed, the final obstacle before the last stretch was a massive loop-de-loop that would require every ounce of speed that Hot Shot and Override had and then some if they hoped to make it through in one piece. Knowing this, they both began pouring on more and more speed the minute they began their ascent up the large curvature in the road that would put them upside down for a few seconds before finally leading them directly onto the final stretch of road. As they felt the two Autobots speed up and eventually reach the point where they were driving straight up and then upside down, Yzak and Dearka could feel themselves being overwhelmed by a G-Force of speed that even a well-trained mobile suit pilot could just barely stand without coughing up their guts, right to the point where they were pressed tightly back into their seats by the sheer force alone, and in all honesty, it was an exhilarating feeling that was unlike anything either of them had ever experienced before in their entire lives.

When the feeling finally came to an end, Dearka saw that Hot Shot was not able to put out enough speed to keep himself ahead of Override and keep from falling off the loop, and Override had taken Hot Shot's small moment to catch his breath coming out of said loop to rocket ahead of the. "Hot Shot, we've got to do something fast if we want to win this, otherwise their going to completely cream us," Dearka shouted.

"At this point there's only one way we can win this," Hot Shot said, and Dearka immediately figured out what the Autobot was planning to do.

"Are you crazy," Dearka asked. "Clocker told you that the booster was too dangerous to use as anything other than a last resort! There's no way you can be sure that you'll be able to control yourself at that speed."

"Maybe, but I promised Override I'd give this race my best, and I fully intend to," Hot Shot then said. He then paused for a minute before he asked, "Are you with me?"

Dearka was hesitant for a moment, knowing that Hot Shot was right in what he said about that promise and that there was also the bet he had made with Override before the race had started, and as he continued to think on this, he found that he was able to understand very well that this race was more than just another race for Hot Shot; it was a matter of pride as a racer for both Hot Shot and Override. As a soldier and a Gundam pilot, Dearka could understand such a thing very well, so he immediately nodded and placed his hands on the steering wheel as he said, "Let's do this. You focus on your speed and leave all the maneuvering to me."

"With a straight shot to the finish line like this, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Hot Shot replied, and with that said, he immediately brought his attention to the speed enhancer that Clocker had attached earlier and fired it off with a massive burst of energon. The minute the booster had ignited, Dearka found himself hit by the same amount of G-Force he had felt earlier so suddenly that he was thrown back into his seat for a minute before he finally managed to push himself forward and keep a firm hold on the steering wheel in order to keep them going straight.

Yzak honestly thought that he and Override had the race in the bag when he saw how much distance they had gained between them and Hot Shot and Dearka, so he felt that he could easily relax all the way to the finish line until he spotted something in the mirrors that was coming up on them at incredible speeds. "Watch your rearview, we've got company," Yzak told Override.

The leader of Velocitron was honestly shocked by this sudden decrease in the distance between her and her rival, but she was able to shake it off in time to put on her own boost of speed in order to keep ahead of the two. Unfortunately for Override and Yzak, the female 'Bot's speed boost was only enough to keep an even pace with Hot Shot, and now, with the finish line in sight, it was all down to who would want it more. The cheers of the crowd had fallen silent as they watched in eager anticipation, everyone on the edge of their seats waiting to find out who would win, and a second later, both racers crossed the finish line at a speed so fast that you would have missed it if you had blinked. When Override and Hot Shot finally skidded to a stop, Yzak and Dearka both climbed out of their respective Transformer partners for the race and approached each other as Yzak asked, "You okay Dearka?"

Dearka was silent for a minute before he finally looked to Yzak and smirked as he said, "When we get back to Earth, remind me to ask Miss Erica and Banagher to make some upgrades to the Verde Buster, cause that was awesome and I want to be able to experience going that fast again."

Yzak returned Dearka's smirk with one of his own as he said, "Damn straight that was. I honestly plan on coming back to this planet after all this craziness with Galvatron, Le Creuset, and everything else has cleared up so that we can race again, but next time with all of our friends."

"Well just don't be too disappointed when you lose to either me, Kira, or any of the others who's Gundams transform into a land based vehicle," Dearka retorted in good humor, eliciting a laugh out of both of them before they turned their attention to the monitor to await the final results of who won the race. Everyone was tensed as they waited, watching as the image of the two racers just crossing the finish line enhanced on the monitor until it displayed who had won, and which Transformer had crossed the finish line ahead of the other by a mere few centimeters.

 _"Femme and mechs,"_ the announcer said over the speakers after a small moment of silence followed the displayed result. _"The winner of this year's Ultimate Grand Race is…Hot Shot! That's right, you heard it right folks; the winner is the racing warrior of Cybertron, the fearless defender of the speedway, HOT SHOT!"_

An uproar of cheers and applause immediately greeted everyone's ears as soon as the announcement was made, and a rain of confetti and streamers erupted over where Hot Shot and Override were sitting in vehicle mode, both barely able to comprehend what they had just heard and seen on the monitors, while up in the VIP section of the stands, a certain group of Autobots and a green haired Coordinator were grumbling about pulling out of the bet when Athrun had gotten in on the action. Eventually, both racers transformed into their bi-pedal modes, and Override turned to Hot Shot with a smile and said, "You beat me, Slick. I never would've believed it if I hadn't seen the results and been out on that track the entire time, and I can honestly say that was the best race of my entire life."

"Same here, Override," Hot Shot replied as he exchanged a handshake with the femme.

Override then smirked a little and said, "Well, I guess you're going to get even more popular than you were before, seeing as you're now the one in charge." Hot Shot gave Override a confused look for a minute as Override then added, "I guess I'll do what I can to help you figure out how to run an entire planet after you finally show me this big proof of yours that Cybertron's real, assuming that I believe it that is."

At that point, Override's words finally pieced together in Hot Shot's processor, and his face morphed into one of disbelief and mild horror when he came to the realization. Hot Shot then found he could only stutter incoherently as he tried to protest against this new information, which Dearka finally voiced aloud saying, "Well, I guess congratulations are in order for you, Mister New Leader of Velocitron."

Hot Shot immediately turned to protest that he was only racing and that he had responsibilities as an Autobot that would prevent him from leading Velocitron, but everyone could only laugh in response to his weak protests and state of being overwhelmed by the new responsibility he had landed himself into. It mattered little though, as Hot Shot knew he would be able to get some payback when he finally showed Override his little bit of proof that Cybertron existed, which showed in the smirk he adopted when he radioed Bumblebee and asked his old friend if the offer to return to Cybertron was still open, and if there was room for a couple more passengers as well.

* * *

Galvatron was furious over what had happened on Velocitron. The operation they had launched had failed, and now there was not likely to be any chance that the Decepticons could secure the Dark Energon reservoir before the Autobots. He knew that ultimately it did not matter in the grand scheme of things, but still securing the reservoir would have provided their forces with a much needed edge against the Autobots, along with an additional supply source of Dark Energon aside from the one on Earth, which the Autobots were making every effort to keep them out of. Of course, he was able to place most of the blame on one individual in particular easily enough as he growled, "This is what I get for trusting a pathetic gangster who thinks too highly of himself like Ransack to handle a job."

"I would not worry too much, Lord Galvatron," Le Creuset then stated, gaining the warlord's full attention. "After all, one of our most trusted soldiers, his team, and his new ally are already close to ensuring that we secure the pocket on Junkion with no trouble at all. Even if the Autobots are pursuing them, they do not have nearly enough forces to combat him and his team."

Galvatron just huffed in recognition of this, truly hoping that said soldier's team would be able to deliver like Le Creuset said, but for now, he decided to deal with another, much more important matter. "Shockwave, what is the progress on the other Predacons?"

"The ones that will act as what I would dub as generals are nearing completion, which would be the second and third Predacons," Shockwave reported in his usual, neutral yet terrifying tone of voice. "Though I must admit that the sudden change in the already active Predacon's behavioral instincts was rather unexpected."

"You mean, the fact that it decided to jump through the Space Bridge to Velocitron on its own when it should've stayed in its kennel," Starscream quipped in response to this, gaining him a pair of glares and a rather neutral, yet still irritated single optic in response. "Honestly, I fail to see why we should consider creating more of those beasts. The one we currently have is far beyond any of our control, save for yours Lord Galvatron, and as I've said before, it tears through anything in sight."

Galvatron was about to interrupt Starscream from continuing his rant, when a sudden pounding and scratching on the door to Shockwave's lab suddenly rang out, drawing everyone's attention towards said door. A minute later, the Predacon that they were just talking about suddenly bashed its way into the lab with a roar and then stalked into the room with a heated glare as it looked around. None of the individuals in the room were sure why the Predacon had suddenly done such a thing, but none of them really cared, as the beast had just forced its way into an area that it should not have, and that was all the reason for Galvatron to angrily shout for Starscream to get the beast back into its "kennel", as said Seeker had described it earlier. "Alright you, go on and get out of here and back where you belong. Go on, go," Starscream said as he produced a shock rod and proceeded to zap the Predacon.

It did not surprise everyone when the Predacon slapped the shock rod out of Starscream's hand and then pounced on the Seeker as he squealed in horror, but what happened after Starscream was pinned beneath the Predacon's claws did much more than surprise them. A minute after Starscream was pinned, the Predacon's body suddenly began shifting and changing, until it had completed the ability of transformation and reformed into a massive robot that was larger than even Galvatron, and possessed heavy plated armor, large spikes on his shoulders, back, and head, and clawed hands. His optics retained their same shade of yellow while his dragon wings were folded down on his back, and the thing that served as the greatest surprise was when it actually _spoke_ as it told Starscream, "Strike me again and I will bury that rod in your spark."

"Well…I did not realize that the beast was capable of transformation," Starscream stuttered as he backed away from the Predacon.

"Nor did I," Galvatron snarled as he threw a glance at Shockwave.

"And it seems to possess a much more advanced intelligence than we gave it credit for," Le Creuset mused as well with a hidden smirk.

"I am no mere beast," the Predacon then snarled as it stomped towards Starscream and hoisted him up by his throat.

"The ability to transform is a fundamental part of Cybertronian biology, as well as that of other Transformers in the universe that have ties to true Cybertronians. We simply possessed no evidence that the Predacon species ever reached that evolutionary stage since they became extinct in the great cataclysm," Shockwave reasoned with both his master and the masked man.

Galvatron smirked in amusement as Starscream struggled in vain to free himself from the iron grip the Seeker had been caught in, and then approached the now transformed Predacon. As soon as he was close enough, Galvatron delivered a hard punch that forced the Predacon to release Starscream before it found Galvatron's wrist blade at its throat while Galvatron asked, "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes Lord Galvatron," the Predacon replied with a more subdued tone than before which sounded rather regal, like that of a noble ruler.

"Good, and it seems that we have much to discuss," Galvatron stated as he retracted his blade into his wrist.

"I believe that a first thing we should think of is a name for our new friend, as simply referring to him as 'the Predacon' would not do for much longer anyway, regardless of this change," Le Creuset stated.

"Let me spare you the trouble," the Predacon stated as it moved to stand in the center of the room before everyone that was gathered before him. "I am savagery and honor blended into one warrior. I am the master of all Predacons. I AM **PREDAKING**!"

As they watched and listened to the now-named Predaking's roar of identification, Galvatron and Le Creuset could only smirk with glee at the anticipation for what was to come next, both from the Predacon before them and the ones that would soon follow. Starscream, of course, did not share the Decepticon leader and his human ally's anticipation, for he only saw this as another obstacle to deal with in his road to becoming leader of the Decepticons, one that he was determined to find some way of dealing with once and for all even if it killed him. The only one who did not give any form of emotional thought to the new development was Shockwave, as he simply found this as a new case for study that he would be sure to exam as thoroughly as possible. The one thought that they all shared though, was the one which stated that the Autobots and their allies were now in even greater danger than ever before.

* * *

 ** _AN: So there you have it, the mission on Velocitron is effectively at an end, Hot Shot had that big, final race against Override and won, making him the new leader of Velocitron, Override's about to discover once and for all that Cybertron does exist, and now Predaking has come fully into action, with a couple more Predacons soon to be on the rise._**

 ** _Dearka: Not to mention you found a way for us pilots to get in on some of the action outside the battles. By the way, were Optimus, Kira, and Athrun always going to be involved in that battle?_**

 ** _AN: Honestly, no. I had originally intended for the team on Velocitron to handle the situation themselves, but since I did not do much with the Predacon in a long time, aside from some of the small side mentions, I felt I had to include it in this battle, and thus I had to figure out a way to get at least Optimus and Kira there to help out. At that point, I remembered that there were bases on both the PLANTs and the moon, and they were likely to have Ground Bridge pads like the one in New Iacon, and after realizing that I first hit myself in the head for not remembering that sooner, and then reasoned that it would be easier to send out a small-sized ship from space than it would be to launch something from Earth._**

 ** _Miriallia: You know, I can't help but feel that little bit of dialogue that Predaking had at the end there was a bit reminiscent of a certain line from a certain comic book hero._**

 ** _AN: Yes, yes, I know, I practically ripped off Batman's whole "I am vengeance, I am the knight..." blah, blah, blah thing, but I honestly wanted to give Predaking an epic introduction, and that just seemed to work best._**

 ** _Arcee: And let's not forget the newest addition to the cast of the story, which is actually another OC from "Many Faced Mage"_**

 ** _AN: Ah right, thanks for that Arcee. Yeah, the character of Banshee is another OC from the previously mentioned user, which gives the Decepticons a total of three, living female members. Also, just so you know, yes, this is another character that's playing for Team Starscream over Team Galvatron, so it seems that Starscream's going to have a little more support in his plans to take over the Decepticons this time around. Big round of applause for "Many Faced Mage" and the help his characters give to this story everybody!_**

 ** _[audience applause goes off]_**

 ** _Now, if you were hoping for more on the tale of what was happening with Shinn, Luna, Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Thundertron..._**

 ** _Thundertron: CAPTAIN Thundertron!_**

 ** _AN: Right, sorry. Anyways, if you were hoping to see more of them this chapter, sorry that I had to disappoint, but I'll be making up for that with the next chapter, which you'll now get a small look at. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _After confirming Cybertron's existence to Override, the Autobots immediately begin operations to assist in preparing Velocitron for any further Decepticon attacks, while most of the Velocitron team returns to Earth. Amidst the joyous celebration of their first off-world mission's success, Kira is quick to put a slight damper on the mood when he speaks with Athrun and Yzak on the matter of the HorseMan mobile suits, and some ideas of what exactly goes into the works behind them. Even as our heroes celebrate their success, more on Predaking's newfound nature is unveiled to Galvatron, prompting the Decepticons and Le Creuset to decide to take action that would ensure that Predaking and all other Predacons that followed after him would remain loyal to their cause by any means necessary. Meanwhile in space, the team that are on a quest to save Junkion find themselves gaining some needed reinforcements, only to encounter an even greater problem than they realized that they could have been facing. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 11: Storms Across the Stars** ** _. Thundertron, Grand Destiny, show the scourges of Space what it means to cross a pirate and an Autobot!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	11. Storms Across the Stars

**_Cagalli: Ah feels so good to get home after a long day's work, with nothing to worry about and no reason to get all stressed out over whatever._**

 ** _AN: Speak for yourself. Your place is too big! I had to walk very far to find a bathroom!_**

 ** _Cagalli: DAH! lyokoMARVELanime?! What're you doing in my house?_**

 ** _AN: Athrun said I could stay here for a bit, and some idiots at the studio made it so that we had to leave for a few days. Said they had to spray for bugs. THIS IS HOW I SPRAY FOR BUGS! [stamps foot on the ground]_**

 ** _Cagalli: Well at least I can relax knowing that you can't do anything with you're little spoiler prevention stunts._**

 ** _AN: Oh yeah. That is a problem._**

 ** _[Audience booing starts up]_**

 ** _Cagalli: Where's that coming from?_**

 ** _AN: [shrugs innocnetly] I don't know. Now, the show's starting so let's answer some reviews._**

 ** _First off, in response to long-time follower and OC contributor "Many Face Mage", Glad you liked how your character was introduced last chapter, and expect a few more of your characters to get in on the action with this chapter. Also, to answer your question, yeah the evil OC pilots from Destiny Sentinels will more than likely be making a comeback as human Terrorcons, much like Jaylen and a number of other characters will be._**

 ** _Secondly, in response to "kira444", the Quintessons will be in this story, but not in a way that you would probably be expecting. Beyond that, I cannot say more until we reach that chapter._**

 ** _Cagalli: Oh I remember rehearsing for that chapter. It is really weird how those guys showed..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [whips out remote control version of usual control, hits button, and a pie catapult suddenly rolls in before flinging a pie into Cagalli's face]_**

 ** _Cagalli: HEY, WHAT GIVES? I thought you said you wouldn't be able to do that!_**

 ** _AN: I said we wouldn't be able to do anything too extreme, which means nothing that would normally get you killed. I never said that you wouldn't have to worry at all. Seems you didn't learn your lesson after the first Gundam SEED Prime story as well as you thought you did, eh Cagalli?_**

 ** _Cagalli: [grumbles incoherently]_**

 ** _AN: Well, while she's getting cleaned up, let's roll out!_**

 ** _Once again, in case you've forgotten, new Transformers that are getting first appearances or cameo mentions will have their names in bold._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Storms Across the Stars**

It turned out that Hot Shot's plan to prove the existence of Cybertron to Override was to have her travel to the planet itself aboard the _Ogygia_ , with Clocker coming along for the ride as well because it did not feel right for them not to let their friend see the world that all Transformers originated from. When Override laid optics on the massive, metal world, Hot Shot could not stop himself from laughing in amusement at her stunned, silent expression of awe, and his laughter only increased when Clocker began to practically jump for joy at finally seeing the legendary Cybertron. In all honesty, everyone was half-expecting Override to start denying what was before her optics and insist that it was some kind of trick, but shockingly, she was able to quickly accept it without a moment's hesitation after coming out of her shock at last, and then immediately insisted on doing everything she could to help the Autobots stop the Decepticon threat, much to everyone's thanks and relief.

After they had given both Velocitronians a grand tour of Cybertron and all the major locations on the planet, the team bid a fond farewell to Override, Clocker, and Hot Shot as they departed for the planet of racers once again, with the promise of having Sideswipe, Skids, and Mudflap act as the primary Autobots for coordinating the set-up of Velocitron's anti-Decepticon defense systems, and they were then able to finally return to Earth. It was a bit of a hassle getting back, as they had to land at the Lunar Headquarters before traversing a Ground Bridge back to New Iacon due to the fact that the storms that were now covering most of the planet would have made it impossible to land directly on Earth, but given the party that had been awaiting the heroes who had gone to Velocitron, it was all very much worth it. Said party was still going in full swing with Jazz holding solid ground in a dance-off competition when Kira suddenly pulled Yzak and Athrun aside, saying that he needed to speak to them about something important.

"Alright Kira, what's up," Yzak finally asked when they reached a point that was well out of earshot of all the party-goers.

"It's about those mobile suits we fought against on Velocitron," Kira stated in an all-business tone of voice, and the minute he mentioned said machines, Yzak and Athrun's expressions both quickly hardened as well, as the matter had been bothering them also.

"Are you wondering how the 'Cons and Le Creuset got them," Athrun asked.

"No," Kira replied. "I think we can all safely assume that Shockwave was responsible for creating those machines, but what I'm more concerned about is the matter of the pilots. Yzak, was there anything about the way that they fought that stuck out to you, like anything that would indicate that they were either being controlled remotely somehow or had actual pilots?"

"Well I don't know what would qualify as a sign of being controlled remotely, but they were definitely fighting with a skill and intensity that you would only find from a regular pilot," Yzak replied. "Their movements and attacks were way too quick and adaptable to be something that was carried out by a machine, even one of Cybertronian origin."

"And that's what really bothers me," Kira stated in response to Yzak's observation. "If they really do have a mobile suit force that big, then where did they find the pilots?"

"Maybe another alien race that was extremely similar to ours," Athrun suggested. "I mean we do have quite a bit of solid proof that there's life on other planets."

"Maybe, but that would be way too much of a coincidence and of a stroke of luck for it to be true. Space is massive and said to be infinite, so the chance of finding any kind of alien race similar enough to ours that could pilot a mobile suit would be extremely small, practically speaking. Not to mention Galvatron wouldn't want to entrust another alien race to watch his back when he's already got Le Creuset on his team," Yzak argued. "If you ask me, it's more likely that they've got a bunch of Mini-Cons flying the things."

"That's not unreasonable, but it is a bit unlikely," Kira stated. "Not all Mini-Cons are humanoid like Rewind and Eject, as we've seen from seeing all of Blaster's Mini-Cons, and they're actually just a bit bigger than we are. Plus, remember when Fixit and Eject tried to pilot some of our machines?"

"Yeah, that's hard to forget," Athrun chuckled in amusement, while Yzak and Kira both smiled a bit. "They were barely able to get into the cockpits right without any trouble, and even when they did get in, they could barely get the things moving that well."

Yzak's face then became serious again when he suddenly said, "There is one other possibility." At Kira and Athrun's looks of confusion, the silver haired commander clarified what he meant with just two words. "Whistling Reaper."

The two childhood friends flinched a bit when Yzak brought that name up, as it was a name that none of them liked to think about anymore than necessary. Whistling Reaper was a terrorist group of humans that still held onto the ill feelings towards the Transformers in general that was held by groups such as LOGOS and the few political figures that still refused to accept the Transformers as friends and allies after the Great Autobot Civil War, and it was a known fact that some of the people in the group were in fact former members of LOGOS or senators and government leaders that were dismissed from office because they tried to take a strong stance against the Autobots remaining on Earth, right to the point where they would resort to threats of using military force against them. Ever since the Autobot Earth Division had first encountered the group, Whistling Reaper had been striking out against the Autobots and other Transformers in what they claimed was a quest to purify the Earth of the alien plague, right to the point where the terrorists had actually cannibalized a surviving Eradicon that had somehow made his way to Earth. Eventually, they discovered that they had some ties to high profile members of the Sol Federation's government, which led Cagalli and Audrey to immediately route out the traitors and dismiss them from office as soon as their connections to Whistling Reaper was confirmed, and after a failed attempt to frame the Autobots for crimes that they did not commit, the terrorist group had long been believed to have been crippled. Despite that fact though, everyone knew that it did not mean that Whistling Reaper was gone for good.

The fact that at least some of those terrorists were still around was a matter that Yzak had reminded both Kira and Athrun of with his suggestion, and while they both acknowledged that Yzak's idea did have something to it, there was still one flaw with the point. "Whistling Reaper hates the Transformers and anything to do with them. There's no way they'd ever willingly work for Galvatron," Athrun pointed out to his friend. "And even if they were forced to, they've shown that they're willing to kill themselves before doing anything that their 'hated enemies' would want, or did you forget how many times that the Earth Division had managed to capture one of their members for questioning, only for that very same member to slip themselves a bit of cyanide before they had a chance to ask him anything of great significance?"

Athrun did have a point in that, as the members of Whistling Reaper had proven their loyalty to the group's cause in such a way many times before, much to their horror and sorrow, but that did not stop them from getting the information they needed to put the group in the state that they were in now. "Still, you can't deny that it is at least possible for it to be true," Yzak stated. "They have shown that they're willing to go to any lengths to show the world that all Transformers are 'evil monsters that should be eliminated or removed from the Earth', so who's to say that they wouldn't be desperate enough to work with the Decepticons if they truly thought that it meant ridding Earth of the 'Bots once and for all?"

"No matter how you slice it, it's still just a possibility, and all we can go off of right now is guesses, so until we find out anything that proves or disproves any of these theories we can't say anything for certain," Kira then intervened before too serious of an argument could break out. "For now though, let's try to keep anything pertaining to this subject to ourselves. There's no reason to needlessly worry the others over something that we don't have any solid answers to."

Yzak and Athrun both nodded in response to Kira's reasoning, though Yzak felt that he should mention to Kira that the fighting style of some of the new mobile suits was actually a bit familiar to him, but before he could say anything, the base's alarm suddenly went off, prompting the three to immediately rush back into the central hub, where the party had completely broken up and everyone had now gathered around the central monitor. "What's going on," Athrun demanded.

"We've got a new development in Hawaii," Fixit reported as his stubby fingers rapidly spun across his console. "Several of the volcanoes on the different islands that make up the island state have suddenly gone active and are threatening the populace. Heine Westenfluss is already on the scene in the Saviour, but he can't help with evacuations and keeping the people safe alone."

"What's the status of the Protectobots," Bumblebee requested, already slipping into his command mode.

"They're currently occupied assisting with an avalanche disaster in the Northern Alps that had trapped many different mountain climbers and skiers," Fixit reported. "There's no way that they'll be able to help assist at any time."

Bumblebee nodded in consent of this before he decided, "Then I guess that leaves only one option. Fixit, locate and connect us to **Heatwave** 's team."

"Who's Heatwave," Mu asked in complete confusion.

"He's the leader of a special, non-combat team of Autobots that primarily handle emergency response missions. Think of them as an Autobot version of that old Rescue Heroes franchise that was around years ago, and you'll have a good idea of exactly what they're about," Dearka replied.

"In other words, Bumblebee's calling in the **Rescue Bots** ," Miriallia clarified.

"We try to do so as sparingly as possible since they are not trained for combat like normal Autobots are, but seeing as this is a situation that's right up their alley and Evac's team is otherwise occupied, we're going to need their assistance," Bumblebee then stated. He then turned to two other Autobots and added, "Strongarm, Springer, you're both going in as well."

"Yes sir, Commander," Strongarm saluted as she and the triple changer moved to the Ground Bridge.

"And stop calling me Commander," Bumblebee reminded the cadet once more before Fixit reported that he had Heatwave on the line, bringing Bumblebee's attention back to the monitor. When the group looked at the monitor, they could see an Autobot with a red torso, a silver face, and what looked like a fireman's hat on top, making it obvious as to what kind of rescue work Heatwave specialized in. "Heatwave, I need you and your team in Hawaii for an emergency situation. You'll be meeting up with some other Autobots and one of the Gundam pilots as well."

 _"_ _Understood sir,"_ Heatwave replied with a salute. _"Consider the Rescue Bots already rolling to the rescue."_

Just as the communication ended, the alarm sounded once again, and this time, Feldt was the one to report what their sensors had picked up. "This just came in over the Terminal," the pinkette reported. "A massive earthquake is rolling through China and causing serious damage. Many building have become unstable, several people are now in danger, and the aftershocks are showing no sign of stopping any time soon."

"Understood. Yzak and Drift, I need you guys to…" Bumblebee started to say, but when he turned to face the two, they had disappeared from where they had previously been standing. "Yzak? Drift?"

"We're way ahead of you, Bee," Yzak stated as he strapped his helmet on and climbed into the Blu Duel while Drift moved to transform into his helicopter mode by the Ground Bridge.

Bumblebee rolled his eyes in mild amusement before requesting that Fixit contact Shiho and Swoop, and as soon as Fixit had begun doing so, the Earth Division leader looked over to his human partner and best friend and asked, "Kira, what the Pitts has been happening on Earth while I've been gone?"

"We're still not all that sure yet," Kira admitted. "Erica, Banagher, and Feldt are all still looking into any solution that they can think of along with Ratchet, but right now, all we know is that this string of natural disasters just flared up at the same time that the Dark Energon Volcano increased in its intensity. For the moment, all we can really say is that it seems like this is Earth's way of reacting to the sudden rise in the substance, almost like it's crying and lashing out in pain, like someone with a very agonizing disease."

"Well, consider our efforts redoubled, because I doubt that the Earth can take much more of these disasters if things keep up. I'm heading back to the station that the other three are looking into the cause at right now," Feldt then stated as she raced for the Ground Bridge as well, having already programmed the coordinates for her destination to come online after Drift and Yzak had departed.

"Sir, I have located and connected to Miss Hahnenfuss and Swoop," Fixit reported. Bumblebee nodded in thanks, and then commenced relaying his orders to the two. As this was going on, everyone in the room could tell that the fact that Bumblebee had to jump back into work so soon after getting back from Velocitron truly meant that things had become very problematic on Earth, and they could only hope that it was not a sign of what was still yet to come in the approaching days.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

A few hours had passed since Predaking had revealed his new found nature to the Decepticon forces, and now Shockwave was running a few tests on the formerly mindless beast to see if there was anything new about him that they should know of for the future. Predaking was a not eager to submit to the tests at first, but after receiving reassurance from Galvatron, the future leader of the Predacons did not put up any fuss on the matter. As Shockwave ran his test, Galvatron and Le Creuset took the time to speak with Predaking about his new transformation from mindless beast to what he is now. "I was not lying when I said that your new developments were interesting, Predaking," the masked madman commented.

"Even so, it would seem that you've been keeping secrets," Galvatron snarled, accusingly.

"It was not my intention to deceive you, Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset," Predaking immediately informed them, denying any notion of deception on his part. "I only recently became aware of my new abilities, myself. My memories of my beginning are vague at best, but I do remember some small bits and pieces of it."

"Such as," Galvatron asked.

Predaking's face narrowed in concentration, almost as though he were glaring at some unknown thing or person as he replied, "Hunting, battle, viciously tearing apart an enemy, a comrade of that enemy lashing out at me in retaliation before falling at my might as well, and the wounding of my pride. Eventually I began to burn with questions such as who am I and where did I come from? The base's database provided historical facts, but still I possessed no memory of my own past, so I began to reconsider my place in the present, and wondered, could I be like the others…and now I know."

"And yet you are unique," Le Creuset exclaimed in mild excitement. "A miracle of science, cloned by Shockwave from Cyber-nucleic acid, and recovered from the remains of your mighty ancestors."

Predaking looked around at the tubes in Shockwave's lab which contained the still developing Predacon clones that were like him, before he allowed himself a small smile as he looked back to his leaders and stated, "It is with deepest gratitude for my creation that I pledge undying obedience to you, my one true masters, Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset, but with more of my species soon to stride among us, I beg for your permission to in turn lead them as their king, hence my name Predaking."

"You're vision is boundless," Galvatron complimented with a small smirk. "Rest assured, you will have what you wish for."

Predaking nodded in thanks for this, and the minute that Shockwave finished running his tests, Predaking was allowed to leave, being told that it would be wise for him to mingle among their forces so that the Decepticons may familiarize themselves with their new ally. Once Predaking had left the lab and was well out of audio sensor ranger, Galvatron snarled a little as he stated, "The former beast may be loyal to us today, but when he and his kind discover that their might is greater than what we possess evolution will become revolution."

"That may be, but we cannot deny that the Predacons will give us a strong edge against the Autobots, and with Shockwave so close to completing some of Predaking's newest generals, it would be a waste to cease work on the Predacon Project," Le Creuset argued. The masked man then looked to the Decepticon scientist and asked, "Is there any way we could prevent the Predacons from turning against us, or even gaining a strong enough will to do so?"

Shockwave looked around his lab in thought for a minute before he replied, "Given the current level of development for most of the main generals, especially in the case of the two that are already nearing completion, it is highly unlikely, but I theorize that so long as nothing occurs that would lead Predaking to doubt his loyalty and trust to the two of you, it should not be a problem. In the case of the minor Predacon drones, however, I can implement a control mechanism that would allow them to obey only your commands without question, even if Predaking and the others should turn against you."

Galvatron snarled a little in response to this, as having mere foot soldiers as opposed to the mighty warriors that Predaking and his generals were was not an ideal solution, but given the circumstances, Shockwave's solution was preferable over not having control of any Predacons at all. Galvatron looked to Shockwave and told him to begin work on such devices at once before he and Le Creuset departed from the lab, making a straight line towards the private chambers that only they had access to. Once they had reached said chambers, they locked the door in and kneeled in the center of the room as a blaze of purple flames erupted, while a pair of crimson, demonic eyes appeared before them. "We have news of a development, Master," Galvatron stated.

 **"** **Speak carefully, my loyal followers, lest you wish to taste the wrath of my disappointment,"** the deep, dark voice of Unicron bellowed.

"We were unable to secure the Dark Energon reservoir on Velocitron, but there is news of the Predacon warriors that we have been having Shockwave develop," Le Creuset reported. "The one that we already have in full activation has gained the ability to transform, and his intelligence is evolving to be that of more than a simple beast."

 **"** **This is not unexpected,"** Unicron stated.

"Master," Galvatron inquired.

 **"** **The Predacons gaining their own sentience was to be expected, for with such a level of intelligence, they would prove to be of far greater use to us than they would as mindless beasts,"** Unicron explained. **"While they may eventually betray us, it would already be too late by the time it happened. I trust that you are taking measures to ensure that we will have some Predacons to fight for us in the event that does happen though, correct?"**

"Indeed," Galvatron stated. "While it may not be ideal, it will allow us to have the advantage, should Predaking and his generals turn against us, at least in sheer numbers."

 **"** **And what of your efforts in the way of the other reservoirs? You know that awakening more of them shall accelerate my return to power,"** Unicron then asked.

"We have dispatched a mighty and loyal Decepticon's team to aid our allies in the matter involving Junkion, and we are already closing in on the third pocket as we speak. However, the location of the final reservoir still continues to elude us," Galvatron reported.

Unicron snarled in disgust at that last bit of information before he stated, **"Redouble your efforts on locating that final reservoir. I have a feeling that it will prove to be the key to the undoing of Primus's last disciple."**

"As you command, Lord Unicron," Galvatron and Le Creuset stated before they rose to their feet and made to leave.

 **"** **One last thing, my followers,"** Unicron then said before the two could unlock the door to the chambers. **"It would seem that there is a traitor in our midst who is gaining a small following. Do not let your guards down, and do not allow their actions to interfere any longer than necessary."**

Galvatron and Le Creuset both nodded in response to this just as the power that allowed Unicron to communicate with them finally dispersed into thin air, and they then stepped out to take a small stroll around the base, both of them already having a very strong idea of who the traitor that Unicron spoke of was.

* * *

 **Location: The** ** _Hyperion_**

Ultra Magnus was about to reach his wits end with this journey, as he was constantly clashing with Thundertron's attitude and way of command, which was not all that surprising to any of his fellow Autobots or the Gundam pilots, as Magnus's military-style of leadership would naturally butt heads with that of a pirate's on a regular basis. Whenever Magnus thought they should take the less risky route and avoid any unnecessary damage to the ship and crew, Thundertron would argue that they should only do that if they wished for a less thrilling journey that would cause them to be greatly delayed in reaching their destination. Granted, Thundertron was right that they needed to hurry, and he did end up going whatever way he wanted to despite the protests of Ultra Magnus, while still somehow managing to get the ship through with no trouble at all, but it only served to further infuriate Magnus to the point where Shinn and the others were sure that the Autobots' second in command was close to dropping his usual cool under pressure, strict military attitude and just flat out blasting Thundertron with everything he had, or simply smashing Thundertron with the Forge of Solus Prime. Thankfully, their destination was now in sight, so they would not have to worry about this for much longer.

From where he was currently standing at the front of the _Hyperion_ , Ultra Magnus could immediately see the reason why Maelstrom Belt was named as such, for it was a massive asteroid belt that was packed with countless asteroids, and not just the typical space rocks, but many other items that would be considered space junk as well, ranging from comets to even long lost space probes and satellites. Every single thing in the belt was so massive that it would not be surprising if a small ship was caught in the gravity well of any of the rocks if it were not careful enough, and add in the fact that they were packed so tightly together, then it would be amazing if a large ship could get through without being torn apart even if it were using whatever weapons it had to blast through the debris and rocks. The closest equivalent it had to something on Earth would be the icy waters in the Arctic Circle that would tear an average ship apart, or even numerous, large rocks close to the shoreline of an island that would cause a ship to immediately be sunk if it were caught in a storm.

To some, it would seem like the greatest challenge to navigate in a long journey through space, to others, an area that was best avoided, but to Ultra Magnus, it simply provided a visual example of his confusion. Throughout the journey from Junkion, he had found his methods of command were either ineffective or met with negative response from the members of the team, while Thundertron was able to give orders and establish a command chain that others were able to follow relatively easily without question. Naturally this did not apply to the entire group, mostly just to the members of the Star Seekers that made up the ship's crew, but there were times when some of his own teammates would agree with Thundertron over him, saying that it would give better results. It was not just here though, because for a long time, Magnus had actually been struggling to fit into the fold in the Autobot Earth Division as well. He respected Bumblebee as his leader, and often tried to do what he could to assist the younger 'Bot in leading an effective and efficient team, but it did not escape Ultra Magnus that he seemed to isolate himself quite a bit from his other teammates on Earth as a result due to his strict by-the-book nature, and no one wants to be the odd man out in the group.

This did not go unnoticed by some of his allies, especially in the case of the Desert Tiger, who had made his way out onto the deck to speak with the Autobot SIC. "Hey Magnus, you doing alright? You look like your head's like a hamster in its wheel," Waltfeld called out.

"I beg your pardon," Ultra Magnus asked.

"Something Cagalli sometimes says," Waltfeld explained. "Your mind's getting nowhere just going around and around in circles, and all that stuff. Seriously though, what's on your mind?"

Magnus thought over the wisdom of speaking with Andrew Waltfeld for a minute before he decided that there was no harm in it and simply answered, "I have often feared that my command style may be having a negative effect on unit morale ever since being assigned to Commander Bumblebee's team, and that concern has only strengthened with this mission."

Waltfeld instantly knew what Magnus was referring to, being a military commander himself, and simply replied, "Don't let it get to you too much, big guy. I've often heard that everyone's glad to have you onboard with us all, so it can't be that negative of an effect. If you ask me though, your problem is that you're just having a hard time adjusting to the way things have changed since the war for your planet ended, and you just can't get used to the fact that our team is not just some random military unit. We're all a lot more than just some cogs in a machine, and that makes us something much better than an army."

"I do not understand. What could be greater than an army," Ultra Magnus then inquired, not letting even a small amount of his confusion be hidden from his voice.

"It's a little thing we have on Earth that I think you Cybertronians are at least a little familiar with. What we are is more than just allies, more than just comrades, and a lot more than just friends. When you get down to it, there's only one thing that truly describes our group even though it's not as little as it used to be. We're family," Waltfeld replied with a smile.

Ultra Magnus looked to the stars again in thought at what Waltfeld had said, having honestly not really thought much about family in a long time, at least not since the war began and he found his old friend Orion Pax becoming the last Prime, but before anyone could think further on that, Brimstone suddenly announced that another ship was approaching them from off their starboard. The two immediately ran back into the ship so that they could see the visual with the others, and it was a good thing they did, because Thundertron was preparing to order all hands to battle stations until Ultra Magnus stopped him. "I recognize that ship and its colors. They're Autobots."

"All the more reason to either shoot them or run for our sparks," Flamewar stated with a sneer.

"Why, did you do something that would get you arrested other than being a low-life pirate? Like say, just being a total bitch? Oh wait, that's how you normally are," Lunamaria immediately quipped in retort to the femme's comment.

The two girls were immediately glaring at each other once again as Shinn stated, "Maybe they're reinforcements from Optimus. I mean, I know that things were getting bad on Earth for a while, but that doesn't mean they couldn't send someone from Cybertron, right?"

"Shinn Asuka is correct in his assumption, and if Optimus did send these 'Bots, then I intend to give him great thanks when we see him next," Magnus stated with a small ghost of a smile.

Thundertron glanced around before he too smiled and said, "Well then, I suppose we should break out the rum and prepare to greet our esteemed guests, shall we?"

Everyone agreed to do so, and they quickly began prepping the ship for the arrival of the incoming Autobot ship as Ultra Magnus confirmed their identity. Once he had done so, everyone had just finished their preparations and gathered near the airlock, just as a boarding ramp had connected the two ships together. When the airlock opened, it revealed three Autobots that looked relatively familiar in terms of appearance to the Gundam pilots. The leading 'Bot looked rather similar to Ironhide except with a red and blue set of armor, the second one just behind him held an appearance similar to that of Jetfire's when he had first arrived on Earth, except with dark blue and gold armor, and the last one was a larger 'Bot with blocky shoulders and large arms and legs with a cannon in the middle of his chest with yellow and light red armor. When the airlock closed behind the newly arrived 'Bots, Ultra Magnus stepped forward with a quick salute and said, "Welcome aboard Commander Spartan. It is good to see you all the way out here."

"Likewise Ultra Magnus, sir," the now identified leader of the three 'Bots said with a salute of his own and a smile in reply. "Allow me to introduce my men, **Boomstick** and our medical officer, **Kyne**."

"What's up folks," the large 'Bot with the cannon in his chest, now identified as Boomstick greeted with a mock salute.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all," the flyer, Kyne said with a small wave and a kind smile.

Everyone on the Autobot and Gundam teams immediately introduced themselves to the three newly arrived Autobots, each getting very positive reactions from the three, especially in the case of Shinn, Lunamaria, and Waltfeld, and Spartan then explained that after what had happened on Velocitron, Optimus thought it would be best to send the legendary Autobot's team to provide whatever assistance they could to the team that was racing to save Junkion. Ultra Magnus was very grateful for this, as he honestly felt that having Spartan's team along for the ride would be a great and welcome help to them all.

This turned out to be quite true, as the minute they entered and began navigating their way through the Maelstrom Belt, Spartan and his team were able to provide the group with a little extra fire power and support that they now saw that they were very much going to need and would have been dead without. If it was not a moderately sized meteor blocking their path, then it was a massive one trying to pull them into its own gravity well, and if it was not the remnants of a long lost space probe of some sort nearly crashing into the side of their ship, then it was a comet impeding their path with all the icy rocks and shards that made up its tail flying right at them, tearing into the hull. At one point, Spartan and Boomstick had even gone out onto the deck with Shinn and Lunamaria to blast their way through a particularly dense area, at which point it became quite clear to the two Gundam pilots that Boomstick had a very obvious love for explosives that seemed a little out of the ordinary for such a seasoned soldier.

What came as even more of a surprise was how much of a disciplined fighter that Spartan was, even if they were just battling against space junk. Every move he made had little to no flaws in them and was well calculated, yet at the same time he also seemed to be quite caring for others, as he always made sure to spare a few shots in order to help his comrades that were out on the deck with him, even if there was a chance that it would lead him into harm. In all honesty, from where they were standing, it seemed almost as though Spartan could be just as great a warrior as Optimus was, maybe even one that was worthy to become a Prime. When Shinn confronted Spartan on this, the Autobot waved the notion off and simply said, "I am merely a soldier and an instrument of the Primes, nothing more."

"But you certainly seem like you could do the job given what I've seen and heard about you thus far," Shinn argued.

"Perhaps, but I believe that there may be someone among your kind that would be just as worthy of becoming a Prime," Spartan argued.

"Someone of Earth," Shinn asked in disbelief.

"Like Optimus, I too have seen the potential that humanity seems to hold from what few encounters I have had with humans, and one human in particular caught my optics. I have a strong hunch that perhaps he may end up being the first Prime that was neither of Cybertron or a Transformer," Spartan stated with a smile.

Shinn had to smile a little at Spartan's kind words towards humanity, but at the same time, he could not help but wonder who exactly Spartan was referring to. He did have a few ideas as to who it might be, but Shinn was not all that sure he could correctly guess just who Spartan was referring to until the day that person was revealed to him, whether it be through Spartan or someone else. Shinn was then stirred from his thoughts when Brimstone called out, " _Kalis' Lament_ dead ahead!"

Sure enough, the very same ship that Shinn had seen escaping Junkion was dead ahead of them, sitting snugly next to a particularly large meteor almost as though it were simply sitting in port. At the sight of this, Waltfeld had to ask the question that had been bugging all of them for some time now. "Why would they come all the way out here? Is there some kind of valuable treasure or something that only the bravest of spacefarers can find or something?"

"You know I can't help but find it amusing that everyone always assumes that all we pirates do is hunt for treasure day in and day out," Cannonball commented.

"What my dear first mate here means is that the Maelstrom Belt is actually where one of the Star Seekers' secret hideaways are, and the only one who could safely get us there for the longest time was the treacherous scourge what led the mutiny of my ship before casting meself and what loyal members of me crew off the ship," Thundertron explained. "We like to stockpile the valuables and treasure that we have gathered in our travels out here along with supplies and such for when we can't make port at any of the places in the galaxy that are friendly to us pirates."

"I guess that makes sense," Lunamaria nodded in admittance. "Although, I'm actually kind of disappointed that's all there is out here in this nightmare of an asteroid belt."

"Why's that brat," Flamewar asked with a small sneer.

Lunamaria ignored the jab from the femme and answered, "I don't know. I guess I was kind of expecting there to be some sort of cursed treasure out here that they had acquired at some point in the past after the mutiny and that the power source they took from Junkion was the last piece of the puzzle necessary to lifting the curse, or something like that."

"Ah don't be silly," Crosshairs chuckled. "That kind of stuff only happens in those pirate movies you guys have on Earth."

"You mean like the ones with that particular song that you like so much, Cross," Bulkhead smirked.

"Hey, I like those movies for the lead character, not for that song that gets stuck in your head," Crosshairs huffed in retort, but the action only got everyone laughing at him until Kyne spotted something that immediately raised everyone's worries.

"Spartan, there's a Decepticon ship out there with the _Kalis' Lament_ ," the flyer exclaimed. "And I don't think you'll be happy to hear whose ship it is."

Spartan looked at the readouts and as soon as he saw the image of the ship, his face immediately adopted a scowl as he snarled, " **Cyclops**."

"Are we really going to have to ask the question," Waltfeld asked.

"Cyclops is the leader of the 'Cons that Spartan's team fought against in the war even after they all left Cybertron. Despite not being the official leader of his team when he started out in the 'Cons, Cyclops still somehow ended up leading his unit on more than one occasion against Spartan's. One could also argue Cyclops is the Megatron to Spartan's Optimus Prime," Ultra Magnus explained.

"So there's a chance we might be in serious trouble if we go charging in there with guns blazing, right," Waltfeld asked.

"Yes, but fortunately, that was never the plan," Thundertron announced proudly. The team then gathered around to hear what the Transformer pirate had in mind, and while it was a good plan on paper, it was not good enough for everyone. At least not until Ultra Magnus offered a few changes to the plan that would help a little. Surprisingly, they were all changes that Thundertron actually agreed with, a clear sign that perhaps Ultra Magnus was beginning to modify his way of thinking already.

* * *

Within the labyrinth of caves in the asteroid that the _Kalis' Lament_ was docked at, the leader of the Star Seekers who had betrayed Thundertron had just finished a meeting with Cyclops, earning himself a very hefty sum of cash for delivering the power source that they had acquired from Junkion. The silver and blue pirate, named **Axer** was just grinning with greed behind his constantly activated battle mask at the deal he had struck with Cyclops, and there was now no doubt in his mind that he would keep the Star Seekers from ever questioning the wisdom in betraying their former captain again. Admittedly, the complaints about said decision had not begun right away, as Axer had delivered them many a fortune that Thundertron would not have led them to before for many cycles, but when those fortunes became more and more rare, along with the mere thrill of adventure that the Star Seekers always sought, it became quite clear that the pirates were not as thrilled with their current captain as they once were. Thankfully, the Junkion job seemed to appease them, and there would never be a single member of Axer's crew that questioned him again, unless they wanted to be thrown overboard.

Such thoughts of secured loyalty were interrupted when hushed murmurings and whispers suddenly reached his audio receptors, and Axer immediately turned to see, much to his surprise and shock, none other than his former captain and all those who stood with him in the mutiny approaching the mound of treasure that he was standing on top of at the moment as a way of boasting to the crew of their success from just moments ago. "Not possible," Axer gasped.

"Not probable," Thundertron corrected.

"How in the Pitts did you get off that meteor," Axer demanded.

"When you marooned me on that star forsaken spit of rock with naught but a blaster and a single shot, you forgot one very important thing, my dear former cabin boy," Thundertron stated knowingly. "I'm Captain Thundertron of the Star Seekers."

"Well…I certainly won't be making that mistake again," Axer replied. "Next time, I'll be certain to leave ye on a meteor even further away from any civilized world with nary a chance of escape, save for that little blaster."

"You know, I'm actually having a thought on that there, Axer," Thundertron stated. "One that shall see to it that neither of us ever troubles the other again."

Axer stared at Thundertron like he was crazy for a minute, until the former Eradicon chuckled and asked, "What then? We face each other in a battle to the death until judgment day and the trumpets sound?"

"Or you could just surrender and I take my revenge on you for stealing both me ship and crew," Thundertron offered. When Axer just snarled in response, Thundertron shrugged like he did not have a care in the world, even as the other pirates around him began to pull out there weapons and take aim at him, Cannonball, Flamewar, and Brimstone. "You don't want to be doing that now, mate," Thundertron warned.

"Oh no. I think I really do," Axer said confidently as he readied his own blaster.

"Suit yourself. It's your funeral," Cannonball then shrugged in agreement with his captain.

That got Axer's attention, even though he knew that it was likely one of his former captain's tricks, but he still knew that it was better safe than sorry if Thundertron's first mate was saying such a thing and asked, "Why don't I want to be doing that?"

"Well you see, if you kill us and continue to horde that little gizmo you took from the garbage planet, then I can guarantee that you'll bring down the wrath of the entire fleet of Autobot ships that is waiting just outside for you," Thundertron stated. "Now they won't do anything if I continue to live and I say that there is something of the doohickey to recover, but if you try to fight them, then you will likely be facing your end, especially if you don't return that to Junkion."

Axer rolled his optics as he said, "And this is why I lead a mutiny against you, Thundertron. You're too soft and eager to align yourself with the Autobots, knowing that they'd sooner snuff your spark or lock you away than willingly help you with anything."

"Better that than being poisoned by Dark Energon," Flamewar said, and that comment immediately garnered the reaction they had been hoping for. The minute that Dark Energon was mentioned, everyone in the room who was not with Thundertron immediately became nervous and started exchanging similar whispers and murmurs of worry, and even Axer's stoic, confident expression faltered for a brief minute.

"What is that femme going on about," one of the faceless pirates asked.

"Oh well ye see, a very reliable friend of mine in the Autobots has recently told me of a plot by the Decepticons that involves unleashing pockets of Dark Energon that are concealed in certain planets, and apparently Junkion is one of these planets," Thundertron said. "Now if I know me space history like I believe I do, if the Dark Energon pockets are unleashed, then that means the dreaded Unicron the destroyer will return, and it will be the end of the universe for us all, and we'll all be facing a trip to Dauntless's Hangar."

Axer could barely stand the sound of his loyal crew questioning their judgment in his orders once again, until he finally snapped, "I will not stand for yer lies, Thundertron! That little power source just fetched us quite the sum of gold from the Decepticons, and now, we're even closer to the goal of the new Star Seekers being revered as the most fearsome and devastating of pirates in the galaxy."

"Then what say you we put that to the test," Thundertron offered. "I challenge you to a Pirate's Duel."

If Axer were in his right mind, he would know that he could not face Thundertron in such a challenge, for an official Pirate's Duel was a one-on-one challenge between two captains in which they would both battle one and other to the death and the winner would claim the ship, crew, and spoils that their opponent had gathered until now, while the loser would be killed in a cruel, torturous way selected by the victor. Naturally, the Pirate's Code did say that one did not have to accept the challenge, but since Axer was not in his right mind, he immediately accepted. The two pirates were then given a large amount of space, as all the others crowded around the sides of the cave while the combatants drew their blades. A minute later, the sounds of swords clashing against each other rang out through the caves, while Thundertron slammed his free fist into Axer whenever the opportunity to do so arose, with Axer doing the same.

The entire time that the two pirates were fighting, it never occurred to anyone other than Brimstone, Flamewar, and Cannonball that the entirety of the crowd in the cave was too focused on the two dueling pirates to ever notice the Autobots and Gundams slipping into the cavern and taking up positions to cut off anyone from either interfering in the battle or even escaping the cave without being aligned to Thundertron. Eventually, Axer lost his footing for a minute, and that turned out to be just the opening that Thundertron required to knock Axer's sword out of his hand, and the pirate captain then pinned Axer against the wall. Axer then made a desperate attempt to push Thundertron off of him, but he only succeeded in knocking Thundertron's sword from his hand, and he did not realize his mistake until he had stood up once again and heard the sound of a shot being fired. In his haste to win no matter what, Axer had forgotten that Thundertron still had his blaster, the same blaster with only a single shot, and Thundertron had used that shot on Axer's spark chamber at point-blank. "Not…fair," Axer moaned.

"You're a bloody Eradicon and a pirate, you don't get to talk about fairness, mate," Thundertron whispered, and a minute later, Axer fell flat on his face as he went offline. Thundertron then looked to the other pirates in the cavern and asked, "Who here wishes to follow this wretched dog in his path and continue to act out against their captain? If there are any of you that wish to do so, then I'd suggest ye leave now, or I will be having what few honest and true pirates among us kill each of you at once."

For a minute, no one made any more at all, but eventually, some of the other pirates did try to make a break for the exit, only to be cut off by Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld's Gaia Gundam before they could get near the exit. "I suppose that takes care of that matter," Waltfeld commented.

"Yeah, but there's just one problem," Shinn pointed out as he and the others came out of hiding, worrying all the pirates in the room until Thundertron and the others calmed them down. "The power source is already gone, and it's in the Decepticons' hands."

"Then we will pursue them at once," Ultra Magnus decided.

"Correction, YOU will pursue them. Now that I have the _Lament_ back, my loyal crew of honest and true pirates and I shall be on our way," Thundertron cut in. "I won't be letting you pull me into some galaxy wide war that involves that horrendous Dark Energon."

"Come on Captain," Shinn pleaded.

"Sorry lad but I see no profit of any sort in it for us to deal with that wretched substance that is Dark Energon," Thundertron replied as he turned away, just missing Lunamaria's declaration of being right about him as he led the pirates out to the _Lament_. Shinn and Bulkhead both went after Thundertron in order to try and convince him to at least help them find a way to head in the right direction, until they found themselves on Thundertron's ship along with someone else. "Now who invited you," Thundertron asked the Decepticon that looked a great deal like Shockwave, save for his blue and purple color scheme.

"I do apologize, but I thought I'd let myself have a small tour of the vessel before departing," the Decepticon said just as the other Autobots had joined them, and it did not take long for Spartan to recognize who it was both by the 'Con's appearance and his way of speaking.

"Cyclops," Spartan snarled as he and his teammates readied their weapons.

"One of those wretched Decepticons ay? Well I won't be having you mucking up my ship," Thundertron stated before turning to both his crew and the Autobots. "Throw him overboard!"

"Parley," Cyclops suddenly shouted, getting every pirate to pause in surprise.

"'Scuse me," Thundertron asked.

"What the heck is barley," Shinn asked.

"Not 'barley', 'parley'," Lunamaria corrected.

"Yes, and to answer your question, Shinn, it's a bit of the Pirate's Code," Thundertron revealed. "Anyone who invokes 'parley' must not be harmed until negotiations between the captain and the one who invoked it are complete."

"So even pirates have some set of rules like that," Waltfeld commented to himself.

"Forget about all that. This is no time for rules," Bulkhead stated.

"True, but as we're honorable pirates, we should always stick to the code," Thundertron argued as he stepped forward to face Cyclops better.

"Oh sure, now he wants to follow the rules," Lunamaria muttered angrily, showing her opinion of the Transformer pirates was not getting any better with this.

"Alright you, out with it," Thundertron then told Cyclops.

"I surrender the power source of Junkion's gravity field generator with my humblest apologies," Cyclops stated, immediately confusing every single one of the Autobots and pilots, especially in the case of Spartan's team, as they had never known Cyclops to make such a move.

Thundertron took no notice of this though as he voiced thanks for this and then asked, "And what do you want in return?"

"Just a few souvenirs for the memories." The minute Cyclops said that, he tossed a series of components into the air, which were then scattered across the Maelstrom Belt by a light blue and dark purple Decepticon which Kyne identified as **Roadkill** , and before any of the Autobots could react, Cyclops had assumed his alt mode and flown off towards his ship, which was already underway. The team quickly ran over to the power generator, only to find that the components that Cyclops had scattered were vital parts of the generator.

"If we don't recover those parts, then this thing will be as effective in saving Junkion as Bulkhead is as a ballerina," Crosshairs stated after his analysis was complete.

Shinn only made a mild note of Bulkhead grumbling about something only being one time before he asked, "Is there any way we could make a replacement for them?"

"There's no time for that," Bulkhead said, having gotten a good look at the device as well. "I may not be much of a mechanic like Wheeljack, Ratchet, or any of our other big brains, but even I can tell when something is really difficult to duplicate quickly, and each of those components that old one-eye there just scattered fit that bill perfectly."

"Which means we'll have to find a way to locate the parts that were scattered before we transport the device back to Junkion," Spartan determined.

"Then why are we standing around here," Thundertron asked. When he saw the looks of confusion that he was getting from the Autobots and Gundam pilots, he immediately elaborated, "That blasted 'Con played us all, mates, and he'll see soon enough what happens to those who cross a pirate, especially one that is a member of the Star Seekers."

Everyone smiled in thanks to Thundertron for this, and they all immediately set to work figuring out a way to track down the scattered pieces while Waltfeld moved off to the side to let Rey and Hound know about their progress. After giving Rey the report, Waltfeld was expecting a calm reply that assured them that there was no reason to worry just yet, but instead he got just the opposite. _"If that is the case, then you'll need to hurry! Things here have gotten a lot worse,"_ Rey's voice stated in clear panic.

"Why, what's wrong," Waltfeld asked.

 _"_ _We were able to stabilize the generator for a while so that you'd have a bit longer to get back with the device, but a short while ago, some of the 'Cons suddenly showed up and started attacking,"_ Rey reported in a tone of dread. _"We've been able to keep them back, but all the fighting made our work useless. I have no clue how long the gravity field generator will last now."_

"Just hang tight, Rey, we'll be there with the fully repaired power source as soon as we can," Shinn called out to his best friend. After receiving a quick roger in reply, Shinn found himself praying that his words to his friend would be true, otherwise the 'Cons will have gained a major advantage that they could not let them have.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well that's a wrap with that._**

 ** _Cagalli: So it looks like you included an evil human organization after all, huh?_**

 ** _AN: Well to be honest, after thinking about it for a bit, I figured that I should at least mention there was such a group and give them a name, so Whistling Reaper was born. I knew that I was going to have Kira and the others start brainstorming ideas on who could be piloting the HorseMan mobile suits, so I thought it would only be natural that they would suspect such an organization had a connection._**

 ** _Cagalli: What I can't believe is that you included those kiddie Transformers, the Rescue Bots in there._**

 ** _AN: I never intended for them to have a very active roll, just a few small cameo mentions like the one in this chapter, and if you'll recall, they had a similar mention a few chapters back._**

 ** _Cagalli: Fair enough. And it looks like we saw the return of Spartan and his team in this chapter as well._**

 ** _AN: That's right, aside from Axer and Heatwave and the Rescue Bots, every one of the Transformers introduced in this chapter are all OC characters created by "Many Faced Mage", and I am proud to say that I am able to use them at least for a couple of chapters in this story. Round of applause for "Many Faced Mage" and his creative genius on these characters everybody!_**

 ** _[audience applause goes off]_**

 ** _Cagalli: Okay seriously, since when is that remote of yours not embedded into your desk?_**

 ** _AN: Oh I had this mobile version made a few days ago just in case. Oh and let's not forget, Starscream seems to be in trouble, as Galvatron and Le Creuset are apparently on to him. Only time will tell if they can prevent our favorite Seeker's little coup before something crazy happens, but until then, you'll just have to wait for that moment and settle for what you'll read after I say, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Shinn, Bulkhead and the others sweep across the expanse of the Maelstrom Belt in their attempts to recover the scattered pieces, while back on Junkion, Rey and Hound lead a desperate struggle to keep the planet from coming apart any quicker than it already is beginning to. Knowing that Cyclops and his forces will likely be joining the battle on Junkion, Spartan's team departs to provide whatever support they can to the world made of garbage, while the others remain behind with Thundertron and the Star Seekers to gather the missing pieces. Can the Autobots, the Gundam pilots and the pirates recover the scattered parts and return the generator to Junkion before its too late, and what terrors will be unveiled to Rey as he and the others continue their defense of Junkion? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 12: Facing Beasts** ** _. Liberator, Hound, show your strength to the enemy that dares to challenge you!_**

 ** _Athrun: [walks in the door and sees who's in the room] Oh hey lyokoMARVEL, what're you doing here?_**

 _ **Cagalli: Wait, you mean you didn't say he could stay here?**_

 _ **Athrun: No, I had just come back from the studio, only to find that it was closed up for some reason with not a soul in sight.**_

 _ **AN: Uh oh. [quickly tries to sneak away unnoticed, only to fail when Athrun grabs him]**_

 _ **Cagalli: [cracks her knuckles] Hold him still Athrun. I want to enjoy this for a bit.**_

 _ **AN: [glances around frantically before smirking] Hey Athrun, want to know how I spray for bugs?**_

 _ **Athrun: Uh...what?**_

 _ **AN: Like THIS! [stomps down on Athrun's foot, freeing himself as Athrun holds said foot] One more thing. [punches Athrun in the face before making a run for it in order to escape Cagalli's wrath]**_

 _ **Cagalli: YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!**_

 _ **AN: NEVER!**_

 _ **Athrun: Ow...well at any rate...**_

 _ **Please read and review, and we'll see you next time!**_


	12. Facing Beasts

_**[loud celebratory music is heard throughout the studio]**_

 _ **AN: YEAH! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY EVERYONE! [loud cheers and partying erupts]**_

 _ **Shinn: Now this is my kind of party.**_

 ** _Waltfeld: I'll drink a nice brew to that._**

 ** _Bumblebee: Hey guys, readers are here._**

 ** _AN: And the timing couldn't be better. Hey everyone, lyokoMARVELanime here with the cast of the Gundam SEED Prime series thus far, and in case it isn't already obvious, we are indeed celebrating a very big and very important occasion today, as this chapter is being posted on the very day that this story series was first posted on fanfiction. That's right everyone, today is the one year anniversary of the entire Gundam SEED Prime Series!_**

 ** _[the song "Celebrate Good Times" starts playing, and a lot the cast starts dancing]_**

 ** _Optimus: Truly today is a momentous occasion. One that shall live for a long time in all our sparks and memory banks._**

 ** _Kira: Hard to believe that we've come such a long way in this story in just one year's time, and not only that, but it's also a late celebration for lyokoMARVELanime's joining the sight as an official author._**

 ** _Mu: Yeah, no kidding. [wraps AN in one-armed hug] Without this guy here, we probably wouldn't be able to throw this little party, and people wouldn't have been able to read the work he's done on this series or any of his other projects._**

 ** _AN: Aw stop it. You're giving me too much credit. I'm sure someone would've done something like this sooner or later._**

 ** _Ultra Magnus: Regardless of whether or not that fact is true, the fact of the matter is that we wouldn't be here for this story right now were it not for your efforts, and if the following that you've gathered for this story is any indication, I'm sure that many would agree with the sentiment._**

 ** _Athrun: Well then, here's to lyokoMARVELanime, the craziest guy we've ever known, and the guy who made this series come to life, and to the Gundam SEED Prime Series!_**

 ** _Everyone: Here, here! [raise drinks in toast as cheers of celebration continue]_**

 ** _AN: Speaking of you readers, don't think that our celebration doesn't include you guys, because without all of you, I doubt I could've gotten as far as I have in this story. It's thanks in no small part to your great reviews and your dedicated following of the series that this story is where it is now. So, here's to all of you readers out there who've stuck with us since the very first story, and for all of you readers that are still to come! You guys are the best! So please enjoy this chapter, as my gift to all of you for this grand celebration!_**

 _ **Once again, in case anyone's forgotten, new Transformers that are getting first appearances or cameo mentions will have their names in bold.**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Facing Beasts**

 **Location: Junkion**

Junkion was in a state that most would not consider normal even by the garbage planet's standards, as everyone was scrambling to either take cover or return fire on the Decepticon forces that were attacking them. It had actually been quite peaceful for a moment after Hound and Rey had finished helping Wreck-Gar and the others get the temporary power source into the gravity field generator, but that peace was short lived, as the 'Cons had shown up mere seconds later with an army of HorseMan mobile suits alongside them. The Decepticons were being headed up by Slipstream, along with what appeared to be an ace version of the HorseMan mobile suit, given that the color scheme was indigo and red as opposed to the deep purple and red that the Decepticon mobile suits normally had, and it was not long until Rey and Hound were leading the defense of Junkion with many of Wreck-Gar's people coming to aid them a few minutes later. While he had started out by charging in and attacking them head-on, Rey soon found himself putting some distance between him and the enemy after noticing that the generator had been deliberately hit by one of the enemy units, and he then transformed the Liberator to its tank mode so that he could fire on them with its guns and keep them from either landing on the planet's surface or getting close to the generator.

As he rotated the cannon on his Gundam's vehicle mode to each target, Rey took the chance to study the enemy mobile suits a little more closely, as Kira had informed him of the encounter they had with these machines on Velocitron and the blonde thought it would help if he could get more of an idea on how the enemy pilots fought in their machines. From where he was, he could see that most of the enemy mobile suits typically seemed to fight with a mindset similar to that of a crazed animal, lashing out in a way that was almost random from time to time, and yet they still seemed to be directed by some driving force, while a few of the others seemed more directed and focused like your basic level pilots. The strange thing about some of the machines with an animalistic fighting style was that they also employed skills that could only be pulled off by ace pilots. What really came as a shock to Rey was that some of those tactics employed were ones he recognized as skills that were used by ace pilots he had encountered in the past at some point or another in his life.

Rey was not entirely sure what to make of his observations for a moment until one of the HorseMans suddenly appeared right before him, forcing him to roll his machine back to avoid the attack and then transform it into Gundam mode. He then armed his machine's right arm blade and retaliated against his previous attacker, landing a powerful hit that exposed the machine's cockpit in an instant, and sent it falling to the ground before the pilot dropped out onto the ground bellow. Seeing that he now had a golden opportunity to discover the true identity of the enemy mobile suit pilots that allied with Le Creuset and the Decepticons, Rey directed his main camera towards the pilot and zoomed in, only to gasp in shock when he saw a familiar young, blonde haired woman in a pink, Earth Forces pilot's suit.

Hound had not noticed any of that until Rey suddenly switched the Liberator back into its vehicle mode, set it to autopilot so that it could continue firing, and then climbed out of his machine to approach the fallen pilot as quickly as he could. "Hey Rey, what do you think you're doing," Hound demanded as he kept firing on the enemy.

"I think I know who that pilot is," Rey shouted towards the Autobot.

"Yo dog, whaz he talkin' 'bout," Wreck-Gar asked. Hound only had time to give a confused shrug in response to the strange-talking 'Bot's question before he had to return his attention to shooting Decepticons as one of the other Seeker siblings suddenly tried to swoop down and strafe the area in order to clear a path to the generator that the two were guarding.

When Rey finally reached the enemy pilot, he was able to confirm without a doubt that the person in question did indeed seem to be who he thought it was, and after he turned her over to get a better look at her face, all doubts on the matter immediately vanished, and he found himself looking at the face of one Stella Loussier. Like any normal person, Rey was of course shocked to see that someone who was supposed to be dead had just been flying the machine that had previously attacked him, so his next thoughts were that the girl was just someone who looked a great deal like the Extended pilot, but that thought was dismissed when the girl suddenly opened her eyes, revealing them to be the same color as Stella's, except with a slight tinge of purple that Rey could only describe as something evil. He immediately shook the thought from his mind when he saw that the girl's attention had directed itself towards him and asked, "Stella Loussier? Do you recognize me?" When Stella did not respond, Rey elected to ask, "Can you understand me?"

Stella's response to Rey's question was not as quick as one would have expected, but it was surprising nonetheless, for a brief, tense moment after Rey had asked her that, she let out a horrid, inhuman shriek and then kicked Rey off of her. Rey was able to recover from the initial attack, but was then quick to go on the defense when the girl suddenly began to lash out at him like a deranged animal, swiping at him like she intended to claw his suit off him along with his face, or just spinning random kicks out at him. Rey did everything he could to avoid or block the girl's attacks while trying to get through to her without the slightest bit of success. After another minute of staying defensive, Rey finally felt that he had no choice but to try and fight back, and drew his Energon Pistol in order to shoot her until it was knocked out of his hand just as quickly as he had drawn it by someone else firing a disarming shot at him.

Rey looked towards the direction he believed the shooter to be in, and was met with the sight of a man that seemed a little taller than him, wearing a pilot suit with the same color scheme as the ace version of the HorseMan standing there with a gun aimed at the hand Rey was previously holding his weapon in. Rey could not see the man's face as the helmet's visor was heavily tinted in order to prevent someone from seeing it. The man then seemed to look towards Stella and ordered her to return to her machine and retreat from the battle. Stella snarled at the newcomer for a minute, seeming like she was going to charge him as well, but then Rey noticed the strange, glowing scars that littered her face seemed to glow for a minute, until the girl finally calmed down a minute after and ran back to her machine to carry out her new orders. Rey then turned his attention back to the newcomer as he quickly retrieved his weapon and aimed it at the mystery pilot as he asked, "Who are you? You're obviously not like she was, and I can tell by both your suit and your machine that your obviously not just another foot soldier."

The mysterious man chuckled before he hauntingly replied, "You're definitely the real thing, seeing as it's the only reason you can be so quick to reach that conclusion…Rey."

Rey paused for a minute, as the fact that this stranger had addressed him by name had thrown him off for a minute, but he quickly recomposed himself before he asked the mystery man, "How do you know my name? Who are you?"

The stranger chuckled again before he stated, "I think it would be strange if I didn't know you're name, after all, we are brothers."

Rey had to pause once again, but this time for more than a minute as he said, "I don't have any real brothers. At least…not in the genetic sense."

"Oh but you do," the stranger corrected. "And with a little help from both that first brother and Shockwave, you now have many more, including me. I'll admit, those others are a bit more dull compared to Le Creuset, but for some reason, I was unique, had a will of my own, and that was enough of a reason for me to be our dear big brother's second in command, at least on the human front."

Rey's eyes then widened in realization at this claim, as he immediately connected the dots and gasped, "You're…you're a clone, just like me."

"Yes," the stranger replied with a grand wave of his arms. "And as such, I think it only right that I give you big brother Rau's offer in his place. Join us, Rey. You know we don't belong in this world, and those fools that side with the Autobots and Kira Yamato are just using you for their benefit, all so they could have another soldier. If you join us though, you'll become part of a much more grand plan that will make all life in the galaxy pay for their crimes against our kind and others like us."

Rey's eyes narrowed as he leveled his gun once again and fired a few shots at the other clone in warning, as he answered, "I know exactly what you and Rau are planning, and I'm not going to help you in any way at all. Your tomorrow isn't mine!"

Rey's fellow clone chuckled before he finally said, "I knew you would refuse. You've been completely brainwashed by those fools, just like I said you were, but there's no doubt that you are a worthy opponent if what I've seen in this battle so far is any indication." The clone then paused for a minute before decreasing the tint on his visor and revealing a face that did indeed look very much like Rey's, except with dark red eyes before he finished, "My name is Ro Co Zane. Remember that name well, Rey, for it is the name of the one who will kill you before this over."

Rey could only watch as Co Zane climbed back into his machine, until he finally returned to the Liberator so that he could properly rejoin the fight, knowing that he would have to make absolute sure that he made a note of this and his other discoveries in his report when he returned to Earth. It was a good thing that Rey had returned to the Liberator when he did, as not a second later, Cyclops's forces had arrived at Junkion and joined in the attack on Junkion, with the one-eyed, Decepticon warrior taking command of the enemy forces. Rey and Hound were quick to start firing everything they had on Cyclops and the soldiers from his team, but Rey knew full well that there was a likely chance that they would not last long at this rate, leading him to mutter, "Please hurry and get back soon, Shinn."

* * *

 **Location: Maelstrom Belt**

As he raced across the massive asteroid field, searching for one of the scattered components from the power source of Junkion's gravity field generator, Shinn found himself worrying quite a bit both for the safety of him and his teammates, and for that of their friends on Junkion. He knew he probably should not worry so much about that, given that Spartan and his team had departed for Junkion ahead of them so that they could give a little more support to the defense of the garbage world, but given that his best friend was on the planet at the time, Shinn really could not help but worry about it. There was not really time to concern himself with such thoughts though, as Shinn had to put a vast majority of his attention on finding one of the scattered components while keeping the Grand Destiny from getting torn apart by the meteors in the Maelstrom Belt in one way or another.

Shortly after Spartan had left, Magnus and Waltfeld decided that it would save them all a bit of time if they split up to search for the parts in small teams rather than using one of the ships to search aimlessly. Thundertron was against the idea, having seen firsthand what happened to Transformers and other life forms that tried to move through the Belt without a ship, but in the end, given what was at stake, the pirate captain had to concede that the two commanders had a point, and so they all split off into groups, with Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus in one team, Lunamaria and Crosshairs in another, and Shinn and Bulkhead making up the final group while Thundertron and his crew kept track of them all from the _Kalis' Lament_. None of the Gundam pilots or Autobots were all that comfortable with leaving the Star Seekers on their own like that, but given what Thundertron had stated about Cyclops playing him for a fool, it did not seem all that likely that the Star Seekers were going to just up and leave them in the Belt before they could even blink, so they decided that they should just trust him for the moment.

So far, Shinn had heard that Lunamaria and Crosshairs were the only ones to find some of the missing parts, and since the two were searching the area closest to the ship, Shinn took that to mean that there was a good chance that the parts did not get sent too far off. Sadly, that idea was quickly dismissed when they did not hear any report of progress from Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld, who were at the midway point between the ship and the border of the Maelstrom Belt, so Shinn and Bulkhead took that as all the more reason to keep an even sharper eye out for the parts than they already were before. It was actually a good thing that they were keeping such a sharp eye out, because if they were not then the Grand Destiny would likely have been smashed apart by the dangers of the Maelstrom Belt more times than Shinn ever wanted to admit.

As Shinn steered his machine around yet another asteroid that would have caused severe damage to his suit, even while it was in its bomber plane mode, Bulkhead managed to leap from one asteroid to another by building up enough speed in his own vehicle mode, preventing him from ever feeling the effects of any gravity wells that he did not want to get caught up in. At one point, after they had reported on their lack of progress to the others, Bulkhead decided to strike up a bit of a conversation with his human partner and asked, "So Shinn, how're things going with you and Lunamaria, lately?"

"Why does everyone always keep asking me that," Shinn groaned in slight annoyance at how that was almost always one of the first things people would ask him about these days in casual conversation. Shinn then shook his head before he replied, "Things are going great, really."

"Are you sure about that," Bulkhead asked, as he could sense a bit of nervousness in Shinn's voice when he said that, almost like he was hiding something.

Shinn knew that there was no point in hiding something from Bulkhead, so he sighed in defeat before he admitted, "Yes, I am sure that things are going well, but I'm…a little worried about something."

"And what would that be," Bulkhead prompted.

Shinn hesitated for a minute before he finally answered. "I'm thinking about asking Luna to move in with me. I mean, not with me and my family, but rather, into our own place somewhere. Maybe in New Iacon or Orb, since I know that Luna likes both of those places."

"Whoa, hold up," Bulkhead interrupted. "Did I hear you right? It sounded like you said you were going to ask Luna to start living with you."

"I said I was _thinking_ about it," Shinn clarified. "I mean, it's not that I don't want to, but I'm just…worried that we might be rushing things a little bit, you know? Like maybe we're not ready to take such a step in our relationship. I mean, that kind of thing is a big deal for any relationship, right?"

"Shinn, calm down for a minute," Bulkhead cut in once again, as he was quickly picking up on the signs of panic entering Shinn's voice. "Look, I don't know how different human relationships are from Cybertronian ones, but I do know that you and Luna are definitely ready for whatever step in your relationship comes next. I mean, you guys have been going out for three years now and are still going strong. To be honest, I think most people would be surprised if you guys didn't either move in together or just finally got married like Kira and Lacus did."

Shinn was extremely glad Bulkhead could not see his face at the moment, as it had turned as red as the pilot's eyes when he thought about getting married to Lunamaria. Still, he did have to admit that Bulkhead made a very good point in saying that he and Lunamaria had not really had any problems in their relationship since they finally became official three years ago, so maybe Shinn was worrying a little too much about the matter. It was honestly moments such as these that Shinn was very grateful to have Bulkhead as his Autobot partner, which showed as Shinn smiled to said Wrecker and said, "Thanks Bulk. You know, as soon as we get back to Earth, I think…no, I know I'm going to ask Luna."

"To what? Move in with you or marry you," Bulkhead asked, and despite hearing the teasing tone in his voice that indicated the Wrecker was messing with him, Shinn could do nothing to prevent his blush from flaring up again in response to Bulkhead's comment.

"Y-you know full well what I meant," Shinn stuttered. "Just keep it down, will you? She might be on the same frequency and overhear us or something, and I don't want to ruin the surprise."

"Okay, okay," Bulkhead laughed in a way that would have had him holding his hands up in surrender if he were in his bipedal mode at the moment. He would have added something else in addition to that, but that was before he spotted something just a short ways ahead of them, which he immediately pointed out to Shinn. "Looks like we've finally got one!"

Shinn flew the Grand Destiny over, blasting apart a meteor that drifted into his path as he went, before transforming the machine to Gundam mode and grabbing the component that they needed, while Bulkhead let the others know of their progress. When he heard that they now had only a couple more parts to locate, Shinn could immediately feel his worries beginning to evaporate a little, and his hope that everything would work out elevating.

* * *

In another part of the Maelstrom Belt, Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld had just received word of Shinn and Bulkhead's progress before they resumed their own search, certain that they would find at least one of the missing parts in their area before long. During this time, Ultra Magnus took the opportunity to ask Waltfeld some questions involving ways for the Autobot to improve his command style, as he thought the Desert Tiger was most definitely the best person to ask on such a matter since Waltfeld was such a well-respected soldier that had been said to be a great guy to work for according to many of his former troops. Waltfeld was happy to answer Ultra Magnus's questions, as he honestly liked the by-the-book soldier quite a bit and wanted to help the guy out in any way that he could. The fact that Magnus was certainly the kind of person that he would like to have his back as both a fellow soldier and a friend was also something that really grabbed Waltfeld's attention as well, so there was not much of a chance that he could have said no to Magnus even if he did want to.

Eventually, they came to a topic that had Magnus very much confused for the longest time since he first read about the Desert Tiger, when the Autobot SIC asked, "When the Decepticons had allied themselves with Z.A.F.T., you were not all that welcoming to them, despite what others may think, and not only that, but you even went behind their backs to temporarily shelter and speak with two Autobots and two enemy soldiers as well. Why would you really do such a thing?"

Waltfeld knew that Magnus was referring to the time when he first met Kira, Cagalli, Bulkhead, and Hound face to face in Banadia, something that Waltfeld had not really thought all that much about in a long time, so it was a minute before he finally gave Magnus a reply. "Well to be honest, at first it was just to confirm that Kira was indeed the pilot of the Strike, while also taking the chance to hear a couple of the Autobots' side of the story on your war with the 'Cons, mostly out of curiosity, but I will admit that there was one other reason as well," Waltfeld admitted. "I wanted to see just what kind of person they really were, and what Kira's thoughts were on what it would take to end the war. I know that he probably realized some of the things that I told him, but I'm pretty sure that before I did tell him, the thought had never occurred to him before then. I honestly didn't like the way that the world was at the time, so when I saw some of the things that Kira could do on his own, not just in a mobile suit but as a person as well, I couldn't help but think that with the right push, he could be a key part in finally bringing that war to an end."

"That seems like a very large gamble to make on someone you had only truly met once," Ultra Magnus pointed out.

"Maybe, but it paid off, didn't it," Waltfeld shrugged from the cockpit of the Gaia. "Plus, it also allowed me to really be ready for anything more that the 'Cons threw at us while securing any distrust I had for them. I'll admit that some of them seemed like okay guys, but overall, I was honestly more drawn to the Autobots and how they did things. Even so, I wanted to fight against Kira and the Autobots at least once before I knew for certain what I should do in my future, and all it took was that last battle I had against them along with a missile from Starscream to really help me see that."

Ultra Magnus found that he could not help but give a small laugh in humor to Waltfeld's small attempt at a joke before he located one of the last remaining parts. After radioing in the report of their find, he looked to Waltfeld again before he asked, "Even so, you knew full well that your actions later on would cause you to be considered as a traitor to your people and your comrades in Z.A.F.T., yet you still did it anyway. Why would you take such a risk and allow others to take that risk as well?"

"Well to be honest, if it were up to me, I wouldn't involve any more people than absolutely necessary in the Clyne Faction, but everyone who joined up with us had done so because they wanted to of their own free will," Waltfeld admitted. "In answer to why I did it, the reason is simply because I had signed on to fight so that we could one day have a world where we wouldn't have to fight anymore, not a battle where one side ended up completely annihilating the other, so when Lacus started up the Clyne Faction as a way of keeping the war from reaching that point, I didn't even need to think twice before saying I would help. It was really that simple."

Ultra Magnus had to admit that Waltfeld's reasons were certainly sound, as he knew of a few Decepticons who had left Megatron's fold to join up with the Autobots due to similar feelings, so it was only natural that he could sympathize with those reasons. Magnus had to admire Waltfeld for choosing to protect the future of his world and what he wanted for that world as a whole over preserving his loyalty to his army, because believe it or not, Magnus honestly felt that if one could not feel right in fighting for an army that they were a part of, then they had every right to leave that group so that they could. It may sound a little harsh when he said that aloud to others, but it was just his way of making sure that he did not lose anyone over one person not having all their heart and soul in the fight.

They soon dismissed any further conversation and thoughts when they located the final component of the gravity generator's power source, and immediately began their fast return to the ship as they reported in their find while ordering the other teams to return as well.

* * *

"So that's all of it, then," Thundertron asked once all of the Autobots and Gundam pilots had returned.

"Yep, that's everything," Crosshairs confirmed as he and Bulkhead finished repairing the power source. "We can get this thing back to Junkion, plug it in, and the planet will be good as new before you can say roll out."

"Now there's just the matter of getting there," Lunamaria pointed out. "In case you guys have forgotten, it'll take us forever to get back to Junkion, and I don't think they'll be able to wait for that long."

"Fortunately, they won't have to," Cannonball revealed, getting everyone to give him a small glance. "You see, before he and his team left, Spartan was kind enough to provide us with some parts to assemble a make-shift Space Bridge generator like the ones that the Autobot ships use. It would only be good for one trip, but thankfully, we don't plan to use it anymore than once."

"Really," Shinn asked. "I would've thought you would want to use it as a way to get away before we could have you all arrested or something."

"Ah Shinn, my poor, naïve boy," Thundertron sighed. "You see, that's the thing about being a pirate. You live for the thrill of the journey just as much as you do for the profit. While traveling with a Space Bridge would certainly get us where we want to go much faster, it would also take away the joy of traversing the stars and experiencing the thrills and joys that comes with doing so."

Shinn and Lunamaria had to admit that they could understand that a little bit, as they found that it was kind of like saying that there was no real meaning in accomplishing something if you always took the easiest way to get it, and to someone like Thundertron, using a Space Bridge to travel through Space anymore than necessary was most certainly be taking the easiest way to obtain what he wanted. With all that now cleared up and any final checks on the make-shift Space Bridge generator completed, Flamewar programmed the coordinates of Junkion into the computer, and they immediately began their journey through the blue vortex, back to Junkion as soon as they were clear of the Maelstrom Belt. Even after they had entered the Space Bridge portal though, none of the Autobots and Gundam pilots could do anything to keep themselves from gaining a nervous feeling about what they would find when they finally returned to their friends on Junkion.

* * *

 **Location: Junkion**

The battle against Cyclops, Co Zane, and the other Decepticon forces had been quickly going downhill for the defenders of Junkion, leading Rey to believe that they were not going to hold out for much longer, but thankfully, that was the very moment that Spartan's team had shown up and joined the fight. Soon after, Hound was quickly joined by Boomstick as Kyne saw to any injuries that the other defenders had suffered, while Rey moved the Liberator to fight Co Zane while Spartan engaged Cyclops a mere few feet away from him. "It still amazes me that you haven't been scrapped after all these years, Spartan," Cyclops snarled in anger.

"Believe me, the feeling is mutual, Cyclops," Spartan retorted as he collided his sword with the shock-staff Cyclops had for a left arm. Cyclops then pushed Spartan back before moving to run his staff through his hated enemy, but Spartan was quick to dodge the blow and then follow up with a slash of his sword. Cyclops was able to dodge Spartan's attack, but he could not avoid the hard kick to his chest that the legendary Autobot had thrown out using the momentum of his sword swing a minute later. Thankfully, Cyclops was able to raise his staff up in time to block Spartan's next slash with his staff, and thus this cycle of battle seemed to repeat, with one of the two gaining the advantage over the other for a minute until their opponent suddenly did something to turn the tide in their favor.

From where he was, Rey could only catch small glimpses of the battle, as he was forced to put all his attention on either diverting the enemy mobile suits and trying to fight back against Co Zane, which was not an easy task at all. Co Zane proved beyond a doubt that he was in fact a very formidable warrior that could easily match the level of skill that Rey and Le Creuset possessed, given time, but from where he was sitting, it was quite clear to Rey that his opponent's current skill level was roughly that of his own back when he was first assigned to the _Minerva_ , which gave Rey a very slight advantage. Even so, the advantage was still just barely there, so Rey was having to pull out all the stops that he could to make sure that Ro did not get the better of him, until the enemy clone suddenly backed off, almost like he was giving up for a minute. This confused Rey, as he was certain that Co Zane would not surrender that easily, until a sudden hit on his side showed him why the enemy pilot had suddenly retreated.

Cyclops had noticed Co Zane's sudden retreat as well, along with how a majority of the Decepticons seemed to focus more on the weaker soldiers of the defending forces, and he quickly pushed Spartan away to see why his forces were not giving all their attention to the greater threats. When he did look, he was shocked to see a massive, menacing looking warrior standing over the Liberator, which was currently lying on the ground after it had been hit by said warrior, with large spikes and clawed hands glaring down at the Gundam. "Where did he come from," Cyclops demanded.

The newcomer threw a small glare at Cyclops, making him suddenly feel a little nervous before replying, "You and I will be having words on your treatment towards me later, Cyclops. For now, I intend to deal with the enemies of our master's plans."

Rey was not sure why, but he got the distinct impression that he had seen this particular 'Con before, and when he saw the small beast-shaped sigil on the 'Con's chest, he immediately realized why. Standing before the blonde, was none other than the Predacon that had attacked the others on Earth and on Velocitron. Not wanting to let this former beast tear him apart like it had his friends, Rey immediately fired the Liberator's thrusters in order to blast away from the massive warrior, and fired a few shots from both of the Gundam's arm blasters. The Predacon did not seem to even flinch in response to this, but instead gave a small glare towards the Liberator before it shouted, "Prepare to taste the fury of Predaking and my brethren, Autobots! Predacons, transform and commence the hunt!"

Rey could only roll his eyes at the now-named Predaking's choice of a battle cry, but his worry immediately increased when a second and then a third Predacon suddenly shot up through the air towards them. Both of the new Predacons had alt modes that were dragon-like in appearance like Predaking at first glance, and both had armor that was different shades of blue, and when they transformed, they proved to be almost as large as Predaking, with their wings being folded back behind them like Predaking's were in robot mode. It was quite clear that both warriors were built for battle, which was not good news for Rey or any of his allies, given how much trouble they had with Predaking alone.

There was nothing that could be done now, though, as Rey and Spartan just prepared themselves for the confrontation with the beasts that stood before them, with Hound and Boomstick already sending out several rounds of weapons fire against the three Predacons. Predaking and his brethren shrugged it off before they finally charged in and engaged both Rey and Spartan in close combat just as Rey had armed the Liberator's right arm blade. Both of the two warriors did all they could, with Rey even deploying the Liberator's DRAGOONs at one point to try and even things out, but the Predacons were all far too strong for them, and so they were soon pinned down with their backs against the wall, in more ways than one, for they had soon found themselves backed up against the wall around Junkion's gravity field generator. As Predaking stood over his opponents in assured victory, Rey and the others could not help but feel that it was likely the end for them, until a sudden barrage suddenly struck the Predacons from behind, and this time they did more than flinch a little in response.

Turning to the source, Rey let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the barrage had come from the Grand Destiny, which was still firing its Ragnarok Cannon as it flew in, with the Pure Impulse, the Gaia, Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus, and Crosshairs right behind it, firing their weapons as they went. Shortly after, the _Kalis' Lament_ suddenly appeared nearby, and the Star Seekers swarmed out with Thundertron in the lead, immediately engaging the Decepticons as soon as they hit Junkion's surface. Rey was honestly surprised by the pirates helping them, but decided to ask about it later, as he saw that the his fellow Gundam pilots and the Autobots were now standing between him and the Predacons. "You okay, Rey," Shinn asked from his cockpit.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rey nodded in confirmation.

"Well you mind explaining who these guys are," Lunamaria then asked as she indicated the Predacons.

"You have yet to meet **Darksteel** and **Skylynx** , but I on the other hand, am the very same one who had previously allowed you two to live, but will not today," Predaking replied.

Shinn and the others who had just arrived were all thrown off a little by this statement, until Rey clarified by calling out, "Guys, be careful! That guy's the Predacon!"

"WHAT," all the Junkion defenders who had just arrived exclaimed, but after they noticed the Predacon symbol on Predaking's chest, any doubts on the matter were immediately dropped while Shinn and Lunamaria quickly began throwing heated glares in Predaking's direction.

"I am no mere Predacon," Predaking snarled. "I am savagery and honor blended into one warrior. I am the master of all Predacons. I AM PREDAKING!"

"Well you're about to be scrap metal," Shinn shouted as he holstered the Ragnarok Cannon in favor of the Ascalon Beam Sword, and he then charged at Predaking before anyone could stop him, with Lunamaria following him with the Pure Impulse's Anti-Ship swords soon after. Bulkhead and Crosshairs were about to follow after their partners, but they were quickly diverted by the one that Predaking had identified as Skylynx while Waltfeld and Magnus found themselves facing off with Darksteel. Spartan's team was prepared to assist them, but they were quickly cut off by Cyclops's team once again, and so they elected to leave the Predacons to the other Autobots and Gundam pilots in favor of dealing with their hated enemy once and for all.

Rey had wanted to help his friends against Predaking, but he knew that since they knew nothing about the two new Predacons, the others would need his help more, so he quickly moved to assist Bulkhead and Crosshairs while Hound backed up Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld. Thankfully, it did not seem that Shinn and Lunamaria needed Rey's help all that much, as they were able to match Predaking much more easily than they did the last time they met, partly because they had a small idea on what to expect from their opponent this time, and also because they did not want to give the Predacon leader any chance to assume his beast mode, since there was no doubt that he would likely tear them apart as soon as he did. Predaking was honestly shocked by the two warriors' new battle ferocity, and found that he could not help but give a small, internal smirk at the challenge that they were providing him, even as the Grand Destiny landed a hard punch in his face. When Predaking finally managed to intercept Shinn's sword with his clawed hands, Predaking took the moment to say, "You are much more skilled now than before, from what I vaguely remember of our last encounter, though I doubt it is entirely due to the new upgrades of your machine, human. Tell me, why are you now fighting me with such spirit?"

"Simple," Shinn growled. "You attacked Luna, and I'll never forgive anyone for something like that!"

Predaking now found his admiration for the human pilot growing a little, as he discovered he could honestly respect someone who fought for their comrades just as he would for his brethren, but he could not dwell on the thought for long, as the Pure Impulse had used his moment of distraction to hit him in the back with a barrage from its arm blasters and beam cannons. The attack did little to faze Predaking thanks to his armor, but there was nothing he could do when Shinn suddenly slammed a powerful punch into Predaking's face, sending him rolling across the ground of Junkion just as both Gundams readied their blasters to fire on him again. Predaking just snarled at the two, and was about to assume his beast mode so that he could gain an advantage, when the ground suddenly shook beneath his feet. While Predaking did not know what it meant, Cyclops certainly did, as it was a sign that Junkion was likely about to come apart completely, so Cyclops knew that there was only one thing left for the Decepticons to do. "All units, retreat at once! Our job here is done," Cyclops shouted before he transformed and flew back to his ship while the other Decepticons quickly made a beeline for the Space Bridge that had just opened up for them.

Predaking hated to leave such an exciting battle unfinished, but he did not wish to go against the orders of one of Galvatron's soldiers, so he assumed his beast mode and let out a roar that the other Predacons knew to mean that they were falling back as well before he led his brethren through the Space Bridge as well. The Autobots and Gundam pilots did not make any attempts to pursue though, because saving Junkion came first, so they quickly unloaded the gravity field generator's power source from Thundertron's ship, and slid the power source into its device as quickly as they could.

The trembling did not stop for a moment, and everyone began to think that they should head for the ships to evacuate the planet, until the quakes finally started to die down, eliciting cheers of success from everyone. "We owe you a debt that we could never hope to repay," Wreck-Gar said to the Autobots as he shook hands with Ultra Magnus and the Gaia.

"Don't worry. We were just happy to help," Waltfeld assured the leader of Junkion.

"But the Decepticon threat is still at large, so I certainly hope that you will allow us to make sure that your planet is ready for anything in case they return," Ultra Magnus added.

"You've got a friend in me," Wreck-Gar sang for a minute, and the Autobots took that to mean yes, a fact that Junkyard quickly confirmed for them. Seeing that there was nothing more they could do on Junkion for the moment, the team then made to return to the _Orion_ when Shinn suddenly looked to Thundertron, causing them all to pause for a minute.

"So what about them," Shinn asked his teammates.

They all seemed to pause for a minute before Ultra Magnus said, "Protocol states that we should bring the pirate captain, Thundertron and his crew in for their many crimes, but given the circumstances…I think it would be reasonable to allow them to be on their way for now."

"Mighty generous of you mate," Thundertron said with a mock salute. "And seeing as that is the case, we'll just be on our way. Now that I have the _Lament_ back, there's an entire galaxy out there calling my name." Thundertron then moved to return to his ship before he paused and looked towards the Grand Destiny and asked, "You know, if you wanted, I think there might be a place in my crew for a fierce, yet loyal young lad like you, Shinn. What do ye say?"

Everyone was surprised that Thundertron would give such an offer to Shinn, so they could only look on in silence as they waited for Shinn to answer. After another minute of silence, Shinn finally stepped out of his machine to address Thundertron directly, and said, "I'm flattered, Captain Thundertron, but my place is on Earth with my friends, the Autobots, and…"

Thundertron did not need to be a genius when he saw Shinn glance towards the Pure Impulse as he trailed off at the end, so he simply smiled in understanding as he replied, "I understand that, mate. You've got your own adventure to follow and I've got mine, so here's hoping that we meet again someday amidst the stars, and that we'll be allies again when we do."

Shinn could only nod in reply to Thundertron with a smile before he climbed back into his machine and moved to board the _Orion_ with his friends, while Lunamaria approached the captain and said, "I may not be your biggest fan, but still, thanks for your help, Captain Thundertron."

When she extended her Gundam's hand for a handshake, Lunamaria was quickly confused when Thundertron raised both his arms up in defense. That confusion was quickly lifted when the pirate explained, "I didn't want ye hittin' me again, lass."

Lunamaria could only smile in remembrance as she nodded to the pirate and boarded the ship with her teammates, only stopping to dock her machine in the hangar and power it down as the ship took off. Once she had reached the cockpit, Shinn had to pull her aside and ask, "So you actually hit Thundertron?"

"It was a while back, when the Autobots first encountered him," Lunamaria explained as though it were no big deal. "I'll tell you about it later."

Shinn nodded in acceptance of this, and then sat back to enjoy the ride back to Earth just as their ship entered the Space Bridge vortex.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

When the team returned home at last, they found themselves going through a great hassle before they could finally walk on Earth's surface, due to the fact that the storms and natural disasters covering the planet made it impossible to land the ship directly on the planet any time soon. They were all worried about this of course, but that worry vanished when they saw nearly the entire Gundam team and all of their Autobot friends applauding them for their success and safe return after they entered the New Iacon Base. After the applause had died down and everyone began moving off to start a small party like the one they had thrown for the Velocitron team, Waltfeld and Rey took a moment to give their reports on the mission to Optimus, Kira, and Bumblebee, at which point, Rey had taken the chance to report the discovery that he made in regards to the HorseMan mobile suit pilots. The news that Stella Loussier was the pilot of the HorseMan that Rey had shot down was shocking to say the least, but the fact that the one leading the team this time was another clone like Rey most definitely shook everyone to their core.

None of them wanted to think on how it was possible that the dead Extended girl was now alive again and piloting one of the HorseMans, but that did not stop the questions from arising, which were quickly answered by Optimus voicing his own theory. "It would appear that Galvatron and Le Creuset have discovered a way to use Dark Energon's ability to revive the dead on humans," the last Prime theorized aloud.

"So you're saying that Stella's basically become some kind of zombie because of the stuff that's still spewing out of the volcano that we first engaged the Decepticons at when this whole mess started," Waltfeld asked.

"Pretty much," Bumblebee confirmed. "And given how many pilots and soldiers had lost their lives in the previous war, they would have no shortage of warriors to pilot those things."

"Not only that, but if there are other clones of Le Creuset like this Ro Co Zane claimed there were, then we can easily assume that the 'Cons and Le Creuset have a near limitless army of pilots," Kira added on, his voice showing just how sickening he found the whole thing with every word, a feeling that Rey easily shared with the Ultimate Coordinator.

"The real question is, does that only apply to human soldiers, or fallen Transformers as well," Rey then asked, voicing everyone's worries for them.

"I don't think any of us want to know the answer to that one, kid," Waltfeld stated.

"Until we know the answer on that for certain, we should not raise the concern with the others," Optimus then decided. "I would not want to worry them about what the future may or may not hold. We should also hold off on informing the others of these discoveries for the time being, save for the team that we have dispatched to the third colony world."

"When did you discover this new world's location," Ultra Magnus asked.

"Just a few hours ago," Kira replied. "We had actually just sent Athrun, Elita One, and some others off to that world just a few minutes before you guys had returned."

Everyone nodded in reply to this and then moved to rejoin the impromptu party, save for Optimus, who was now doing everything he could to uncover the final set of coordinates as quickly as possible, each feeling a sense of dread at what they would discover about their enemies next as they did, until Bulkhead motioned for the group to come over to where he was for a minute. When they did, he signaled them all to be quiet before indicating Shinn and Lunamaria, who seemed to be in the midst of a very important discussion. They took this to mean that Bulkhead probably knew what was going on and wanted them to see without interrupting the moment between the two, so they quickly obliged the Wrecker and silently moved to where they could hear them better.

"So what is it that you needed to talk to me about, Shinn," Lunamaria asked her boyfriend with a smile.

"Well…" Shinn started to say, his hesitance clearly showing how nervous he was. "I was wondering if…that is, if you wanted to…maybe…"

"I would love to move in with you, Shinn," Lunamaria suddenly said, softly, cutting Shinn off. Shinn's eyes widened in disbelief for a minute, until he finally started beaming as brightly as the sun on a clear day and wrapped his girlfriend in a tight hug as he spun her around in excitement.

When he finally set the now laughing, violet-red haired girl down, he suddenly realized something and had to ask, "Wait, how'd you know I was going to ask you that?"

"I overheard you and Bulkhead talking on the radio," Lunamaria replied with a smile. Shinn's face lit up with a blush, as he was immediately wondering just how much of the conversation that his girlfriend had heard, and he was quickly stuttering like a dumbstruck fool until Lunamaria finally silenced him by whispering, "Just shut up and kiss me, Mister Super Ace."

Shinn did not hesitate to do so, and he was soon placing his lips against Lunamaria's in a gentle, loving kiss. Seeing the two take such a step in their relationship was exactly what the others needed in order to lift their spirits, and they knew that even with all these new mysteries and questions rising, leading them to wonder more and more about what may or may not come, they would be ready for any of it.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Galvatron was furious when he found out that the Junkion operation had failed, a fact he made abundantly clear to Le Creuset, Cyclops, and Predaking, until Cyclops finally felt that he should speak up in order to defend his actions on the planet. "Even if the Autobots hadn't received reinforcements, I'm confident that we would have succeeded, Lord Galvatron," Cyclops tried to reason. "Perhaps if I had been informed earlier of the beast gaining intelligence…"

Anything else that Cyclops was going to say was cut off when Predaking suddenly slapped the one-eyed Decepticon across the room, and then grabbed him by the throat as Predaking snarled, "Since you were not present when I first made the fact clear, I will only say it once more for your benefit. I am no beast!"

"Despite all evidence to the contrary," Cyclops gasped in a snarl, only to find Predaking's grip tightening in response.

"ENOUGH," Galvatron hollered, prompting Predaking to release Cyclops. "I would not blame your failure on Predaking and his kind, if I were you, Cyclops, though if I had known that their newly acquired abilities would serve to be such a great distraction, I may not have sent them to aid you in your mission. Regardless of that, it should have been no problem for you to have carried out your assignment, yet you decided to play with your opponent the minute you discovered that the Autobot, Spartan was among the enemy. I will not let some petty, past grudge prevent us from achieving our ultimate goal, Cyclops. Is that clear?"

Cyclops immediately bowed his head in response, indicating that he understood perfectly, which served to quell Galvatron's anger for a minute. At that point, Le Creuset took the opportunity to add in, "Not all is lost just yet though, Lord Galvatron. I've recently learned from Soundwave that the team we sent to the third world was able to beat the Autobots there, and they should not have any problem convincing a large group of locals to unknowingly aid us in our ultimate goal, as it turns out that the planet is in the midst of its own war at this very moment."

Galvatron gained a small smile at this news before he hummed, "Intriguing." He then looked to Predaking and stated, "Shockwave has reported that the last of your generals was just recently completed during your mission to Junkion, Predaking, so I would like for you and the other Predacons to join our forces in their conquest of this new world. We may have beaten the Autobots there, but I have no doubt that it will not be long before they arrive."

"As you wish, Lord Galvatron," Predaking said with a small bow before he departed to see to his the rest of his newly awakened brethren. As he made his way to the lab, Predaking could already feel his spark racing in excitement for the battles that were now lying before him and his kind when they reached this world, which would serve as all the reason for others to worry as to what awaited those that stood against them in their path to glory.

* * *

 ** _[Party still going strong]_**

 ** _Dearka: Man, now this is something else, and not just the party, but that chapter as well._**

 ** _Yzak: What I find amazing is that no one's tried to give away any spoilers._**

 ** _Rey: Don't you remember, we all took a vote and decided that since today was such a special day, we wouldn't try to ruin it by giving away so much as the smallest tidbit of information on what's still to come in the story._**

 ** _Lunamaria: And we also didn't want anyone to get hit by one of the spoiler prevention gags as well._**

 ** _AN: Well, even if someone did try to give away a spoiler, I would've just given the old warning from before I installed the spoiler prevention gags, because I didn't want to ruin this party with anything like that either._**

 ** _Ironhide: That's pretty cool of you, boss-man._**

 ** _AN: Well, you know..._**

 ** _Jazz: Uh, is anyone going to point out that we should probably be concerned that Predaking is not the only Predacon now? Or how about that other guy that showed up in front of Rey?_**

 ** _AN: In order, I was never going to stop with just Predaking, as that would've just felt like I was copying the final season of Transformers Prime too much, and thankfully, since Skylynx and Darksteel actually made an appearance in Predacons Rising, it made things a little easier when deciding which Predacons would come next. I'm honestly hoping to show off the last of the Predacon team with the next chapter, but only time and work on that chapter will tell what happens._**

 ** _Lacus: And the newest addition of the Le Creuset clones?_**

 ** _AN: That's actually an original character I came up with. Since the Terrorcons are directionless beasts without someone with Dark Energon in their systems around to control them, I thought it would only make sense for Le Creuset to have a first lieutenant that could provide some direction. I came up with the name Ro Co Zane [which is pronounced "Rho Co-Zane", by the way] because I figured that I'd stick with the fact that Rey and Rau's names are both similar in their structure and pronunciation. This was also meant as a way to provide an additional human element to the antagonist side of the story, because really, it gets boring when there's only one guy on the enemy team who is not a mindless monster all the time._**

 ** _Kira: And just when you think things are getting better, we find out about the human Terrorcons that are piloting the HorseMans and the clones, but then they get better again with the newest development in Shinn and Luna's relationship._**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I wanted to end things for you guys on a relatively high note, and that just seemed like the best way to do it._**

 ** _Smokescreen: Well let's not forget what's going on next chapter, seeing as Athrun and Elita are now headed out with a team to the third colony world in this story._**

 ** _AN: I was just getting to that, actually. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _While things continue to be hectic on Earth, even with the few moments of peace that team find for themselves, Athrun, Elita One, and their team arrive on the third colony world to find that the world is completely consumed in their own war for the planet. When they find that the Decepticons are aiding the side that wishes to control the planet through force and fear, the team does not hesitate for a minute to provide aid to the warriors that fight to keep their world a peaceful one. Can the team truly provide any aid to the strange beings of this world, and what will happen when Predaking and his brethren arrive to aid the Decepticons? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 13: When Heads Start Rolling** ** _. Infinite Justice, Elita One, brace yourselves for the new discoveries that you will find on this world!_**

 ** _Oh, by the way. There was a little hint in the title of the next chapter as to what sort of beings our heroes will encounter next chapter. If you can't figure it out, don't worry about it, but if you do figure it out, don't blurt it out in a review and spoil it for everyone else, please? And most importantly..._**

 ** _Please read and review, we'll see you next time, and thanks for sticking with us for the past year!_**


	13. When Heads Start Rolling

_**AN: Ladies and gentlemen, Autobots and Decepticons, and all other forms of life out there, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Hey, everybody, sorry for the long wait in updating this story, but I've been a little busy with some of my other stories, namely Code: Avengers, which is now completed! Give up for that, everybody!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Yzak: Oh save it! You went and left us high and dry for a couple of kids and a group of freaks and weirdos in ridiculous outfits.**_

 _ **AN: [gasps in shock] How dare he. [Punches Yzak in the face]**_

 _ **Arcee: You stole that from one of those Indiana Jones movies, didn't you?**_

 _ **AN: Yeah, pretty much. Anyways, you'll be pleased to know that all my focus will now be directed towards both this story and that of Shield of the Cosmic Era for a while, mostly because they're my most active ideas at the moment. For those of you who are waiting on updates to some of my other ideas, such as Gundam War Online, I apologize for taking so long on those. It's not all that easy coming up with story lines for stories like that one or even this one at times, but I promise, as soon as I finish this story, I will return to update some of those other ideas as soon as I can. I have no intention of starting anything else new just yet, because I fully intend to finish this series before I do anything else, so you can relax on that.**_

 ** _Dearka: I just hope that we eventually get to the point in this story where we finally reveal the new..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control, and Dearka is enshrouded in a blast of smoke]_**

 ** _Bumblebee: Isn't there supposed to be a stink bomb with this one?_**

 ** _AN: I think Axel finally realized that the stink bomb was not much of a punishment for the offender and took it out. I just hope that...whoa._**

 ** _Dearka: What? What is it?_**

 ** _AN: Uh, nothing. Don't look in the mirror._**

 ** _Dearka: Oh, I see where this is going. You say don't look in the mirror, and then I look to see I have lizard skin, freak out, and then you say that you told me not to look in the mirror, right? That's getting real old. Uh, quick question though, when did you all get so tall?_**

 ** _AN: We didn't, and you didn't get lizard skin, but you still shouldn't look in the mirror._**

 ** _Dearka: [looks in the mirror anyway and sees that he's turned into a puppet version of himself] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_**

 ** _AN: I told you NOT to look in the mirror! Seriously, how hard is that to understand?! Do not, N-O-T, NOT look in the mirror, and what do you do? You look in the mirror! I mean really, you people never listen._**

 ** _Dearka: I am a puppet! A living puppet!_**

 ** _Miriallia: Awe, you look so cute!_**

 ** _Everyone other than Miriallia: [laughs at Dearka's misfortune]_**

 ** _Dearka: This isn't funny, guys! Change me back, now!_**

 ** _AN: Dude, I am not Geppetto. I do not turn puppets into real boys! Besides, I'd have thought you would enjoy this a little._**

 ** _Dearka: Why? [Suddenly gets grabbed and tightly hugged by Miriallia as she continues to say how cute he looks] You know, this might actually have some benefits after all._**

 ** _AN: Well, why Dearka gets over that, and while I figure out how to change him back, you guys stop wasting time here, and roll out to the story already!_**

 ** _Once again, in case anyone's forgotten...oh, you should know how to tell which guys are finally getting a first appearance in this story by now._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: When Heads Start Rolling**

With all the chaos that was now spread across the blue and green planet of Earth, it had become very rare for there to be a moment of peace anywhere on the homeworld of humanity, especially in the New Iacon Base, as a vast majority of the most major disasters were reported to there so that the Autobots could send additional support to those areas. After organizing so many teams to send to so many different locations and disaster zones, Bumblebee was beginning to feel very exhausted. Out of all the Autobots that were currently on Earth, Bumblebee was probably the most exhausted, seeing as he had not had a decent night's rest for a few days aside from the day just after he had gotten home from that first trip to Veloictron. Just about all of his time had now been spent in the Base's central command HUB since then, and somehow, even Arcee had no success in getting him to take a few minutes just to have a small nap. Thankfully, Ratchet's status as an Autobot medic were still in place even though he now served as the official ambassador between Earth and Cybertron, so when the old medic ordered the Earth Division leader to get some sleep, Bumblebee found that he was unable to argue. Of course, Bumblebee was not the only one who was extremely exhausted.

With everything going to hell on the planet, every Autobot working to do what they could to keep the planet from tearing itself apart found themselves being barreled straight into and even through their limits, but unlike Bumblebee, they did not usually need a doctor's orders before they took some time off. The most difficult cases in the way of convincing had actually been the Aerialbots, as the squadron of Autobot Flyers had consistently insisted that they were the best defense against the Decepticon raiding teams that continued to try and get to the Dark Energon Volcano, but when they were reminded that there were other Autobots who could fly that would be able to cover for them, all arguments had immediately died. The Protectobots easily came in as close seconds in terms of Bots that were hard to convince, seeing as they were one of the only Autobot teams that were fully trained and specialized in emergency response operations, but it became easier when they were reminded that even the best rescue specialists could not help anyone if they were completely exhausted. Even so with help from the Gundam Team though, it was still very difficult to keep everyone safe in the chaos that had unfolded onto the Earth for reasons that were still completely unknown.

The only ones on either team that were not completely exhausted were Optimus and Kira, the former being because it was more important for the last Prime to decode the coordinates for the last Autobot colony world, which was proving to be much more difficult than all the others before now, and the latter because he still had duties to perform as both leader of the Gundam Team and as a Z.A.F.T. admiral. Still, Kira's job was not able to keep him from coming by to check up on his friends at the New Iacon Base whenever he could, and that was certainly something that Bumblebee was grateful for. This fact showed in Kira's most recent visit when Bumblebee let out a tired sigh after having given out a new set of orders for an Autobot team that was being deployed to yet another disaster zone, immediately drawing a concerned look from the Ultimate Coordinator.

"What's up, Bee," Kira asked his old friend, his concern showing in his voice.

"Nothing really, Kira," Bumblebee replied, tiredly. "It's just that…well…"

"You're feeling like the entire universe and all that we've worked for has been consumed in a chaos that's only reflected by the Earth's state, right," Kira inquired, but from the way he had spoken, it did not really seem like much of a question.

Bumblebee just looked at Kira for a minute before he smiled and replied with a nod, indicating that Kira had guessed correctly. "I really don't ever have to say anything to you for you know what's going on with me, huh pal," Bumblebee remarked.

Kira just smiled in response and stated, "You never did." They were, of course, referring to the time from before Bumblebee had gotten his voice back and how Kira was one of the only ones who could accurately understand what the black and yellow Bot was saying, which immediately gave them both a feeling of nostalgia at the memories of those days. After bringing himself back to the present, Kira looked to Bumblebee and stated, "Don't worry about it so much, Bee. I'm sure we'll get through this like we always have."

"I know," Bumblebee nodded. "I just wish that things were a bit easier right now. I don't remember everything going to the Pitts this quickly in any of our past conflicts."

"Well who says that things are that bad now," a new voice suddenly asked, drawing the two friends' attention to the recently arrived Mu La Flaga. "For all we know, things are going to get even worse than this in some way, while everything that's happening here is just the precursor to that."

"Well that's a real cheery thought," Bumblebee told Mu with no shortage of sarcasm in his voice.

"Sorry; I really don't mean to be such a downer right now, but I've been getting a little antsy due to _someone_ not letting me head out on any missions recently," Mu explained as he threw a pointed look in Kira's direction.

"I know, Mu; I know," Kira sighed in response. "But right now, with Athrun and Cagalli off-world on a mission to the most recently rediscovered colony world and Mister Waltfeld and Shinn's team almost completely out of commission, you're the best pilot we have available right now, aside from me. You and I have to be at our best at so much as a moment's notice if anything happens." Kira then adopted a light smile before he added, "Besides, you've got more important things to worry about right now, considering you're going to become a father any day now."

Mu lightly smiled in response as he gave Kira a slight nudge in response to that last comment, but he could do nothing to stop himself from groaning, "Don't remind me about that, please. You have no idea how it has been dealing with Murrue lately, and that's with her mood swings alone. I've been woken up in the middle of the night so many times now because she's thought that the baby was coming, only to find out that it was just a false alarm once we had gotten to the doctor's."

After taking a minute to carefully look at the Hawk of Endymion, it became quite clear that his words were ringing very true, because Kira and Bumblebee could easily see the signs of fatigue in his face and overall appearance. Mu had a slight amount of dark rings around his eyes that most normally get from having a lack of sleep, but they were not deep enough for most to notice without really looking, or to even be considered as a sign of insomnia, and his hair was more than a little ruffled, no doubt due to being hastily combed after he had gotten out of bed that morning. Although, if the two thought that Mu looked tired, they were in for quite a surprise after someone said, "You're not the only one who's had to deal with that, you know."

Looking to the person, the two friends had to cringe when they saw Natarle walking in looking almost as though she were nearly dead on her feet. The dark rings around her eyes were a bit more pronounced, even with the small amount of make-up that the former second-in-command of the _Archangel_ would sometimes wear, and her Orb Forces uniform was ruffled enough that one would have to have not been paying any attention to her at all to see that it was obviously thrown on very hastily, almost like she had overslept and just thrown it on as she was heading out the door. "Yikes," Bumblebee mused. "What happened to you, Natarle?"

"I guess you could say that this is a downside to the fact that I still live with Murrue and Mu when I'm not on duty," Natarle yawned in reply. "Every time that they've woken up in the middle of the night because of those false alarms, it's never been all that quiet, and I've always been woken up as a result, thinking that we were under attack or something. The fact that I've always had trouble getting back to sleep afterwards was not all that much of a help."

"Sounds like you had one of these false alarms pretty recently," Kira observed. When neither of the two military officers replied, he could only assume that he was right, so Kira had to ask, "When was it this time?"

"At about one o'clock in the morning, just today," Mu yawned in response.

"Well look at it this way: at least we know one thing for certain now," Kira smiled in an attempt to lighten the mood on the matter a little.

"And what would that be," Natarle tiredly asked, hoping Kira would just tell them and not beat around the bush for too long with whatever joke he was starting up.

"That baby's going to be as stubborn as its parents," Kira mildly joked in a tone that said he was also being very serious about the matter. The small comment made everyone else in the room chuckle a little in good humor, until Kira said, "Might mean the kid will even make a great ship captain or mobile suit pilot when he grows up."

"Over my dead body," Murrue's voice shouted, immediately causing all chuckling to cease as everyone looked to the expecting mother just as she had walked in with Wheeljack right behind her. "Unless this kid is stubborn enough to refuse to listen to me on the matter, I will _not_ let any child of mine enlist in any sort of army, so don't even think about trying to convince me or the kid otherwise, you understand me, Yamato?"

"Y-yes ma'am," Kira immediately stuttered in reply with a hasty salute. A minute later, he realized what he was doing and quickly dropped his hand in embarrassment while everyone else just laughed at the poor young man. "What? I can't help that I still sometimes think of her as my commanding officer," Kira muttered in his defense. He then cleared his throat before asking, "So have you guys decided on a name yet?"

"At least half a dozen actually," Murrue smiled in response as she rubbed her belly soothingly while Mu made his way over to wrap his arms around his wife, much to her comforted pleasure.

"Do you at least know whether or not this kid is going to be a boy or a girl," Wheeljack asked.

"Don't even go there," Ratchet's voice suddenly grumbled, drawing everyone's attention to the medic who had been silently standing over a work station until just now. "Every time I or another doctor has offered examine the child so that they would know for certain, Murrue and Mu have both refused, saying that they wish for it to remain a surprise, for reasons that I still cannot understand."

Everyone could only chuckle at the old Autobot's grumbling, feeling as though the previously tense atmosphere had now been completely dissolved, until Kira paused in his laughter to see that Bumblebee had a fond smile on his face. "What's up, Bee," Kira asked. He may already have a good idea what had clearly lightened up his friend's spirits, but Kira still felt that it was only polite to ask every now and again.

Bumblebee chuckled a little in amusement and said, "I guess that hearing about how close it is to the time that we welcome the newest La Flaga into the world just got me thinking about some things. It kind of serves as a little reminder that even in the midst of all the chaos and darkness around us, there's always a small light of hope that's constantly shinning in an attempt to lead us to a peaceful tomorrow. Someone once said that for every hero there is a villain, for every good there is a bad, and for every end there is a new beginning, and the fact that Murrue will be giving birth soon serves as a physical reminder of that. Sure I don't want for something bad to happen to sour the occasion, but the fact that a new life will be born into the world soon should just serve as all the more reason for us to never stop fighting until we've secured a peaceful tomorrow that the next generation will be entrusted to."

Everyone smiled in silent awe at Bumblebee's words, until Mu finally said, "That's pretty deep. I guess being leader of the Earth Division has made you pretty philosophical, Bee."

"Well to be honest, I was kind of channeling a bit of Optimus when I said that," Bumblebee sheepishly admitted. "I don't think that he ever said those exact words or anything, but it did seem like something he would say."

"Even that is the case, it doesn't change the fact that you believe all of those words with your whole being," Kira told his friend, and Bumblebee had to smile in thanks to Kira for that. The good mood was quickly brought to an end though when the base's alarms suddenly went off, drawing everyone's attention to the main monitor.

"What's going on, now," Bumblebee half groaned to Fixit.

"We've just received a report from the team that was recently deployed to the third colony world, sir. They've stated that they are approaching visual range of the planet and will be landing there soon. They'll notify us of anything they discover the first possible chance they gain," Fixit reported. Everyone sighed in relief at hearing the Mini-Con say that instead of telling them that another disaster had hit, until Fixit added, "Also, there's a new disaster alert here on Earth."

"What is it this time," Mu asked in slight irritation.

"Apparently one of the large lightning storms had struck a dam, damaging the large structure to the point where water has begun seeping through and is now threatening to flood a nearby village. The flooding is minimal for the moment, but one more hit…" Fixit stated, trailing off at the end as he finished.

Bumblebee did not need Fixit to finish though, as he immediately hit the communications control and radioed Springer. _"Sorry Bee, but I'm as busy as a Scraplet on Junkion,"_ the triple-changer reported from his current location.

Bumblebee was able to suppress a groan of irritation before he requested that Fixit get him in touch with Ironhide, Evac, and Shinn. The Earth Division leader then changed frequencies to the one used by the station that was being used to determine the cause of the natural disasters and asked, "Please tell me that you guys have found something."

 _"No luck, Bumblebee,"_ Feldt replied with a shake of her head. _"We're no closer to finding an answer to what's behind these disasters than we are to locating where the Decepticon base is."_

"Just keep trying, Feldt," Kira gently encouraged the young girl just as the people Bumblebee had requested that Fixit put him in touch with came on the other line.

 _"The Protectobots and I have just finished up with a situation out here in the Gobi Desert. I take it you guys need another hand,"_ Evac announced.

"I could use an entire army's worth if you have them," Bumblebee told the Protectobot leader. "You and Ironhide will be coming with me to Thailand. We've got a flood to stop. Shinn, how're things going with repairs and resupply for your team's and Waltfeld's machines?"

 _"The Liberator and Gaia are still undergoing repairs, especially given that they took the heaviest beating in that battle on Junkion,"_ Shinn reported from Morgenroete. _"But the Grand Destiny is ready to go at any time."_

"What about the Pure Impulse," Kira cut in, wondering why Shinn had not mentioned his girlfriend's mobile suit.

 _"It's pretty much ready to go, but given the situation concerning the machine, the technicians aren't quite sure if they should let it out just yet without being absolutely sure,"_ Shinn explained.

"Does this have to do with that mystery feature on the machine that Lunamaria found a while back," Bumblebee asked.

 _"Pretty much, yeah,"_ Shinn stated. _"We still have no clue what the thing even does, so everyone's a little on edge about sending the suit out again unless they have no real reason to keep it out of action."_

"It'll have to do for now," Kira said. "Get the Grand Destiny ready for action. You and Mu will be coming with me to support Bumblebee's team, so make sure you pack your rain boots."

 _"Roger that,"_ Shinn saluted before ending the communication. Mu was not all that happy that his first mission in the field after so long was something like this, but he knew that such missions were just as important as the ones that involved dealing with the 'Cons, so he immediately took a Ground Bridge to Morgenroete and collected the Star Force Strike while Kira and Bumblebee prepared to roll out as well, since the former had taken to coming to the base with the Strike Freedom recently and thus did not need to go to Morgenroete in order to collect his machine.

As they were heading for the Ground Bridge, Kira looked to Bumblebee and asked, "Hey Bee, what do you think of 'Transform and burst on!' as a battle cry for me?"

"It sounds pretty decent," Bumblebee admitted. "But what's with the 'burst on' part?"

"It's a little reference to the SEED Burst ability some of us have," Kira explained.

Bumblebee nodded in understanding, but still told Kira to keep thinking before settling on that idea as his official battle cry, and then led his friend through the Ground Bridge to the site of their next mission together. As they headed out though, they both found themselves gaining a bad feeling in their stomachs, and they were soon hoping that the team headed for the next colony world would be alright.

* * *

 **Location: Orbit of the Third Colony World**

The Autobot ship, _Lemuria_ had just emerged from the Space Bridge and were now in orbit of a dark blue planet that seemed to have gaseous rings orbiting it, and from what the ship's sensors could pick up, the planet seemed to have a very similar layout to Earth, much to everyone's surprise. It was not just in the way of the planet's vegetation, but they could also detect multiple signs of what seemed to be human sized cities mixed in with those of the typical Transformers size, and there was also a clear sign of there being a sufficient amount of water on the planet, along with animal life that was similar to Earth's yet still extremely different. If the team did not know better, they would say that they had actually gone in a full circle back to Earth, but they clearly had not, so they pressed on towards the planet, continuing their scans of the planet before they began any landing procedures.

"Have you found anything else," Athrun eventually asked Strongarm, who was manning the operations station on the ship.

"Nothing of significance to report, Major Zala, sir," the Autobot cadet replied, leading Athrun to roll his eyes a little at Strongarm's continued need to refer to him by his military rank instead of his usual name like everyone else. "For all intents and purposes, the planet seems clear of any early Decepticon signs."

"I'd double check those readings if I were you," Heine suddenly stated as his sensors suddenly started going off. "I'm picking up multiple signs of Decepticon activity on the surface, and from what I can tell of these scans, it looks like they're in a battle with someone."

"Can you tell who they're fighting," Elita One immediately asked.

"Not accurately, but I'd say that it would not be much of a stretch to say that they're fighting against some of the locals," Heine replied. "Hang on; I think we're close enough to bring up a visual of the planet's surface now."

Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the main monitor, and they were quick to see the Decepticons were in fact fighting against some of the planet's citizens, and they were doing so alongside what appeared to be a separate group of locals as well, but that was not what they found to be the most shocking sight in the image before them. When some of the locals had transformed, their heads detached and changed into human sized transformers, while the rest of the body changed into one of the usual alternate modes for Transformers. The ones fighting with the Decepticons did seem to gain a more animalistic appearance at times, but it did not detract from the point that seeing a Transformer detach its head and transform in such a fashion was surprising in the least.

"Well how about that? We've got us some stuff of legend on this world. Real whack," Blaster rapped.

"What do you mean by that, Blaster," Shiho asked in confusion.

"He is referring to the fact that this world is the home of Headmasters," Drift explained.

"Headmasters," Heine queried in confusion.

"The Headmasters are a legendary race of Transformers that were able to adapt their systems so that they would become a symbiotic variation of our race, in which a smaller being transforms into the head of the larger robot," Elita One explained. "It is said that they are able to accomplish this with any form of smaller being, whether they be like Cybertronians or even an organic life form, but no one has ever seen a Headmaster in centuries. In fact, it's been so long that the Headmasters eventually faded into legend."

"And according to one such legend, the entire Headmaster race had left Cybertron at a point in time when it seemed as though we were about to enter a war," Drift continued on. "They wished to escape such conflict because it would endanger their smaller partners, and so they set off to find a world of their own in the hopes of finding a new peace for themselves, one that would never be disturbed by such hardships and horrors."

"Well I think its safe to say that particular legend seems to be true, and that their plan was not a very resounding success," Cagalli commented after she glanced at the image on the monitor before them once again. "And it looks like the 'Cons are not helping matters either."

"It's always the same no matter what place or day. Wherever the 'Cons go war and destruction are sure to follow," Blaster grumbled.

"Then I guess that it's a good thing we're here now," Elita commented. "Drift, get us down there. All hands to battle stations. We're going to hit the ground running the minute we reach the surface."

"Yes ma'am," the team responded, and they were all quick to prepare their equipment, weapons, and whatever else they would need for battle while the triple-changer Wrecker steered the ship towards the planet's surface.

As they were readying their weapons and activating their pilot suits, Athrun paused for a minute to speak with his wife. "I still say that you shouldn't have come with us, and this just furthers my point," Athrun told the blonde. "You're needed on Earth right now, and if you were to die out here on an alien world, then the Sol Federation would fall into chaos and despair. Not to mention…"

"Look, I get that you're worried, Athrun, but this is my decision," Cagalli immediately interrupted before the Infinite Justice pilot could go any further. "I'm not going to just sit on the sidelines while you guys are all racing across the universe to stop Galvatron. I'm just as much a part of the Gundam Team as you, Kira, Luna, and all the others are, and if what we heard from Earth about there being some new Predacons is anything to go by, you guys will need all the help you can get out here."

Athrun was touched by the blonde's concern, but he still had to say one other thing to Cagalli in an attempt to keep her out of danger. "Well could at least consider staying on the ship, for my sake," he half pleaded. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, Cagalli."

Cagalli gave her husband a soft smile, and then placed a gentle, tender kiss on his lips as she whispered, "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you either, Athrun. That's why I have to go out there; to make sure that you'll still be able to come back to me."

Athrun was not a fool nor was he stupid, so he did not need much more of a reason to know that he was not going to win this argument, even if any counters he had left had not already died in his throat, so he simply nodded to Cagalli with a soft smile and kissed her once more before they released each other from their embrace and started heading towards their machines. Just before they were out of earshot of each other, Athrun looked to Cagalli one last time and whispered, "I love you, Cagalli Yula Athha Zala."

Cagalli smiled to her husband and replied with just as lovingly, "I love you too, Athrun Zala."

The two were broken out of their little moment when they heard Grimlock punching a fist into his hand in excited anticipation for a chance to finally fight some Decepticons after so long, and they both had to smile at the Dinobot leader's childlike excitement for such a thing before letting out a small laugh as they finally climbed aboard their Gundams, each now more than ready for whatever problems they were about to face on the planet of Nebulos.

* * *

Down on the planet's surface, Cyclonus was actually enjoying himself, not just because he was leading the team he was on for once, but also because they were winning this fight so easily. It was really like shooting fish in a barrel with these Headmasters that insisted on fighting against the Decepticons' new allies, but that did not mean that the cackling Decepticon had forgotten his original mission; he was simply taking a little enjoyment out of the task they needed to accomplish in order to fulfill said mission. You see, once the Decepticons had landed on Nebulos, they came into contact with the main ruling force of the planet, known as the **Hive** , and once he and his good buddy Demolisher had explained their reasons for being on Nebulos, the leader of the Hive, **Zarak** , had agreed to allow them to locate and awaken the Dark Energon reservoir in exchange for helping him to crush a band of rebels who opposed his rule.

So after dispatching the Constructicons to search for the reservoir, Cyclonus, Demolisher, Blackout, and Astrotrain were quick to join Zarak's forces in their latest strike against the rebels, who were lead by a 'Bot named **Cerebros** , which led them to easily flush said rebels out of their underground base and into the open for the Decepticons to fire upon, much to the pleasure of said Transformers. In all honesty, with the way things were going, Cyclonus was wondering if Galvatron should have even bothered to send Predaking and the Predacons to help them, as they seemed to be doing very well without the beasts at the moment, and there seemed like there would be no chance that the Autobots would arrive before their work here on Nebulos was done. Sadly for Cyclonus, his overconfidence in his victory ended up costing him dearly.

Just as the Decepticons were closing in to finish off Cerebros's forces, the evil transformers were suddenly showered by a hailstorm of energon blasts from above. Looking to the source, Demolisher's face immediately drew a scowl as he raised his blaster arms upwards and shouted, "It's the Autobots! They're here!"

Sure enough, flying down from the sky was none other than the Autobot ship, _Lemuria_ , firing everything it had on the Decepticon and Hive forces. Once the ship was close enough to the ground, the Infinite Justice, Diamond Akatsuki, and Saviour Gundams had jumped out and joined the battle on the ground, with Grimlock, Blaster, and Drift joining in a minute later. Cyclonus knew that with the surprise arrival of the three Gundams and their Autobot allies, there was not any likely chance that they could turn this around, so it was with a great deal of irritation that he cried out, "Decepticons, retreat!"

The effect was instant, as not only were Cyclonus's forces now racing away with their tails between their legs, but the rebels that they had been fighting seemed to take the sudden reinforcements as a great morale booster, which encouraged them to fire everything they had on their retreating foes. Once the Decepticons and their allies were well out of sight, the rebels cheered in victory until the _Lemuria_ touched down on the surface before them. After Elita One and the other members of the _Lemuria_ team had disembarked from the ship, one of the rebels immediately walked up, giving them a sign that it was more than likely the leader of the group, and Elita immediately announced, "Greetings citizen. I am Elita One of the Autobots from Planet Cybertron, acting leader of the team you see before you."

The mech, who had red and black armor, with a silver face and emerald optics nodded in reply and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Cerebros, leader of what many are calling the Nebulon Rebels. Thank you for your assistance in fending off the Hive's forces."

"I just wish we could've been here sooner," Elita admitted. "If we had known the Decepticons were already here, we would've made every effort to reach you before things had gotten so out of hand."

"How do you know of those strangers," one of Cerebros's men, a Bot with army green and blue armor and a cannon over one shoulder, suddenly demanded, his tone very accusatory. "How could you possibly know of Zarak's new allies unless you are in league with them? Cerebros, we should eliminate them before they signal the others."

"Stand down **Hardhead** ," Cerebros demanded, immediately shutting up the now identified Hardhead. "You'll have to forgive him. He's seen many horrors during Zarak's reign, and is not so quick to trust others, especially people he's just met."

"It's quite understandable," Elita nodded. "But we really shouldn't stay here in case they return to attempt to finish the job. Do you have some form of base that we can discuss your situation at?"

"We do," Cerebros replied. "We shall lead you there straight away."

"No," Hardhead protested. "They could be with the enemy! Just let us eliminate them before we are all dead because of your pacifistic stance, Cerebros!"

"You will do no such thing," Cerebros shouted. "These beings just saved our lives. We owe them that much at the very least, and were you not listening? They said they were from Cybertron, the legendary homeland of all our kind. If that is true, then we can benefit from any aid that they can provide us."

Hardhead glared at Cerebros, obviously still against the idea, but he eventually relented with a sigh and warned his leader, "The others will agree with us about this, especially after the Hive destroy our stronghold."

Cerebros shook his head and then told Elita that she and the others could follow them back to their current base camp, to which the sparkmate of Optimus Prime nodded in thanks to before asking Blaster to return to the ship so that they could move their transport into better cover from anyone that should not be aboard it. After they had each transformed into their alt modes, with Hardhead's head detaching and jumping into the cockpit of his tank mode before allowing Cerebros aboard, they were all quick to race off after the Nebulons. Athrun took this chance to get a good look at the vehicle modes that Heine and Shiho had chosen for their Gundams, and he immediately saw that the Saviour had taken on the form of a red hot rod while the Rosso Aegis had become a fire truck. Somehow, the vehicle forms seemed appropriate for the red Gundams, at least to Athrun, and he could not help but chuckle a little at the sight of this until he was suddenly brought out of his musings by the Saviour's pilot contacting him over the radio frequency used by the Gundam Team.

"They seem rather friendly, don't they," Heine commented to his old friend.

"Well one of them does at least," Athrun agreed. "I guess that if what Cerebros said was true, then we probably don't want to know just what it was that Hardhead went through to make him so…"

"Pessimistic," Shiho asked. The chuckles she received from her fellow pilots served as all the answer she needed before she asked, "Anyone else notice anything strange about them though?"

"One of them detached their head before transforming into vehicle mode, Shiho, and from what we saw earlier, just about everyone on this planet transforms in the same way. I think we are well past strange by now," Cagalli reminded the other woman.

"I'm not talking about that," Shiho clarified. "I meant that Cerebros didn't transform like Hardhead, but instead is riding on Hardhead's back. Not only that, but why was Hardhead referring to himself as 'we' instead of 'I'?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the whole Headmaster thing," Heine suggested in reference to Shiho's question. "As for Cerebros though, I can't think of anything."

"Let's not make any assumptions until after we've reached their base," Athrun told his teammates. "We'll hear what they have to tell us, assess the situation for ourselves, and then make some guesses and theories on how they're different from the Transformers we usually encounter."

Everyone immediately agreed with Athrun's decision, and the rest of the trip to Cerebros's base was spent in silence, even though those questions were still forming in their minds by the minute.

* * *

Since the base they had been previously using was now no use due to the Decepticon attack exposing its location, Cerebros ended up leading them to a second one that was in some mountain caves well away from their previous position. After looking around for a few minutes at both the base and the people inside of it, Cagalli had to smile in nostalgia when she said that it all reminded her of the base camps she had been in during her time with the Desert Dawn, a thought that immediately made her think of all the friends she had made in Africa, who were now probably trying to brave the chaos on Earth. Cagalli knew that the guerillas were much stronger than some people would think, but that did not mean that she did not worry for them enough to not give a quick prayer before hurrying to catch up with the others, just in time for Elita to introduce their team to Cerebros and his top generals. The Nebulons were naturally shocked at the sight of the humans emerging from the Gundams at first, but given that their heads could become 'Bots that were about the same size as the Earthlings, it was a much more subdued response than usual, and they were able to greet the humans with open arms.

Once the Autobots and Gundam pilots had finished their introductions, Cerebros went on to introduce them to his most trusted generals, two of which they could tell were able to assume flight-capable vehicle modes, and the last of which was also able to become a ground based vehicle like Hardhead. "Allow me to introduce you all to my friends, **Chromedome** , the rebels' best scout, **Highbrow** , our primary aerial combat leader, and **Brainstorm** , our medic and lead scientist," Cerebros said to the _Lemuria_ team as he gestured to each of the three new faces.

"Hello everyone," Highbrow waved.

"What's up," Chromedome asked with a mock-salute.

"We're happy to have you with us and our allies," Brainstorm stated. The scientist Headmaster then brought out a scanner and started mumbling, "Seems that organic life forms known as humans are not quite similar to early Headmasters, despite the fact that their machines have similar capabilities to Transformers. Must mean that Headmaster technology and procedures are now thing of history for other worlds, but we can't be certain. We should really look further into this later on…"

"Um, if you don't mind my asking, who else is he talking about," Shiho eventually asked after listening to Brainstorm mutter a few more things.

"What do you mean," Chromedome asked. "They are referring to themselves."

"Okay, better question: why do you guys all seem to refer to yourselves in the plural instead of the singular," Heine then followed up.

"It's something of an ingrained thought process," Cerebros explained. "You see, we Headmasters were once two separate beings entirely, with both the body and our heads having their own consciousness, to the point of the two being almost completely different people. Eventually though, our integration with one and other became so deep that there was no real individual between the Bot and the Headmaster, but we were still unable to consider ourselves as just one being, so even after the two consciousnesses fully merged as one, we still refer to ourselves in plural as a way to both remember those days, and because it is simply ingrained into our systems to do so."

"So basically, even when the head is not attached to your bodies, like when you transform into vehicle mode, you're still the same person," Athrun clarified.

"Exactly," Cerebros nodded.

"Then why Cerebros not change like others do," Grimlock asked.

"My main body is…much larger than the average Headmaster's," Cerebros answered. Seeing the looks of confusion that had fallen on the Autobots and humans' faces, he went on to add, "You'll see someday, but you should probably hope that you don't. Now, onto the more important business. What brings you all to our world in this time of war?"

Elita immediately went into the full explanation on Galvatron, Le Creuset, the Decepticons, and their plans for the universe, along with how the Autobots were trying to stop them. As their team leader told the Nebulons the story about their mission, everyone could see the Headmasters' eyes all go wide with shock, narrow in anger, and vary even further with all other forms of emotion with each detail that was revealed, making it clear that this was unlike anything that the Nebulons had ever heard of before. When their tale was complete, Hardhead was the one to demand, "So if those off-worlders you call the Decepticons are here to find this Dark Energon reservoir, then why are they helping the Hive?"

"It's probably so that they can gain potential additions to their forces while ensuring that they don't make too much of a mess so soon," Athrun immediately theorized for everyone. "Beyond that, I can't really say. Why are you rebelling against the Hive anyway?"

"The Hive and their leader, Zarak, have long since believed that the only way for our world to have everlasting peace is through destruction and suppression of will," Cerebros answered. "So long as everyone does what Zarak demands, they all live happy lives, but Zarak is no benevolent ruler any more than this Galvatron you've told us about sounds to be. We've witnessed his forces dragging our people out of their homes to be executed in the streets, sometimes right before the eyes of their own, terrified sparklings, simply because they made a small complaint about how things were done, and after seeing our people tortured so much for so little, some of us felt that we could not stand by and do nothing for any longer. I may be a pacifist by nature, but I can't stand to see others suffer so much, so that's why I now lead this resistance movement."

"If Zarak is really as bad as you say, then it makes sense that the 'Cons would ally with him. He sounds like your world's version of them," Shiho stated.

Cagalli and the others all nodded in agreement with this observation, which eventually lead the blonde to smile and say, "We'll do everything we can to help you get rid of the Decepticons and achieve the peaceful world you're fighting for."

"Ma'am, if I may, Autobot protocol states that we cannot interfere with the business of other worlds, especially when the world is in a state of war," Strongarm protested. "Not only that, but this would clearly be counterproductive in our efforts to…"

"I disagree," Drift immediately countered. "The Decepticons have already interfered in this conflict, and since we are fighting to stop them and their new leaders' plans, then we are already involved."

"Drift has a point," Heine agreed. "Besides, who's to say that the Predacons won't show up as well? They've already appeared during the missions to both Velocitron and Junkion, so it may only be a matter of time until they appear on this world also."

Hearing Heine say this aloud caused Grimlock to chuckle with anticipation and say, "If puny Predacons coming here, then me, Grimlock may finally have challenge Grimlock has been itching for."

Everyone sighed and rolled their eyes a little in good nature towards Grimlock's attitude towards the Predacons, but before anyone could say anything further on the matter, Cerebros coughed and asked, "Would you mind waiting outside while we discuss whether or not we should accept your offer? These are dark times we have been facing, so we can't afford to make any decision lightly."

Everyone that was not from Nebulous nodded in acceptance of that and quickly left the room so that Cerebros and his generals could do as the Headmaster leader requested. Once they were all outside, the human pilots decided to power down their machines for a little while, and then found somewhere to rest for a bit, hoping that Heine's prediction of the Predacons coming to this world did not come true.

* * *

"I demand an explanation, now," Zarak roared to Cyclonus when the Decepticon team leader appeared before him and his council. "You said that you could help rid us of Cerebros and his rebel scum once and for all, and yet unless my eyes deceive me, your plan failed! Why is that, Cyclonus?!"

"Our plan was sound, Lord Zarak, but there was one factor that we had not considered possible at this point in time," Cyclonus replied in a cool, calculating tone that he did not possess before he had sworn his allegiance to Galvatron.

"And what might that be," Zarak's bat-like councilor, **Mindwipe** asked.

"The sudden, yet timely arrival of our hated enemies, the Autobots," Cyclonus revealed. "They are no doubt hoping to ally with Cerebros's forces as we speak."

"And you think they will succeed in doing so," the crocodile Headmaster known as **Skullcruncher** asked.

"There's not a doubt in my processor," Cyclonus confirmed. "If what you have told me of Cerebros is true, then the Autobots will no doubt intend to ally with the so-called 'Freedom Fighters' that Cerebros leads, believing that their ideals and mission align with one another."

"Then why are you not doing something about this," Zarak's final councilor, a wolf-like mech by the name of **Weirdwolf** , demanded. "These Autobots are clearly a threat to our Lord Zarak's plans, so tell us why we should not have Mindwipe turn your processor into slag, and then repurpose your body for our own needs?"

Cyclonus may often seem like a cackling maniac, even after his upgrades had given him such a cool, calculating calmness for his demeanor, but he did not need to strain himself at all to realize how much weight his response to Weirdwolf's threat would carry. That's not to say that he was frightened over what Zarak's men might do to him, as he was certain that Galvatron was capable of doing far worse, but he had no more intention of letting the Hive know that than he did of letting them think that he was frightened by their threat. That was why his response was to give a dangerous smirk, stand up, and tap his comm. link, which served as the signal for a Decepticon Space Bridge to open up behind him, drawing everyone's attention to the number of figures that were stomping through with heavy footsteps.

When Predaking stepped out of the Space Bridge portal along with Darksteel and Skylynx, Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher jumped back a little in fear, but it was not until after all the others that were coming through the bridge had stepped fully into the light that all of the Headmasters of the Hive found themselves reeling back in shock, for in addition to the first three Predacons, there were now ten additional beasts as well. The first of the beasts to step forward into the light had black and gold-orange armor, large, clawed feet, and a set of claws on the backs of both hands. On his back were what appeared to be a pair of dragon heads, in addition to the massive battle axe he was carrying. Next to this axe-wielding beast was a green and gold armored being with large wings, and a scorpion-like tail, and if this beast's build was any indication, then it was more than likely female. Looking on allowed everyone to see another beast like the first female, except for the fact that her armor was light blue and red. Moving on from the two females saw everyone gazing upon a red and purple Predacon who's head seemed somewhat bird-like in appearance, and who gave off an air of trickery and mischief. The last of these first five was a beast with yellow and orange armor, and a hunched back, over which one could see what appeared to be a missile launcher.

What caught everyone's attention was the last five, who seemed to stand together as a group, not unlike many combiner teams that had been seen in the past. The first of the five had red and silver armor, and carried himself like a leader, though not as much as Predaking did, but a leader nonetheless. The second of this group had blue and silver armor, along with an appearance similar to an alligator as well, yet from the way he looked around and walked, it was clear that he was not all that bright. The third of this group was light blue and white, and was clearly much more intelligent in comparison to the previously mentioned beast, while the fourth member of the group was gold with his most notable feature being the sharp spines on his arms. The final member had a bird-like appearance, mostly due to the large wings that were mounted on the outsides of his arms. All-in-all, this latter group of five Predacons exuded an aura of danger as they continued forwards together in step behind the Predacon king.

"Lord Zarak and honored council leaders of the Hive, allow me to present to you the Decepticons' ace in the hole for dealing with the Autobots: the Predacons," Cyclonus finally announced when the bestial transformers finally came to a halt before them. "First off is…"

"I will introduce myself and my brethren, worm," Predaking interrupted, throwing a light glare at Cyclonus to ensure that there was no argument after he had. The Predacon leader then looked forward and gestured to himself and each Predacon in the order that they had appeared as he said, "Greetings leaders of Nebulous. I am Predaking, Master of the Predacons. With me here are my most trusted generals, the first of which being known as Darksteel and Skylynx. Following them are the most recent additions of my loyal and dear brethren: **Scourge** , the mighty, three-headed dragon; **Ser-Ket** and her sister, **Ripclaw** , the hybrids; **Lazerback** , the agent of trickery; the usually silent but deadly **Vertebreak** ; and the members of the **Abomination Clan** : **Hun-Gurrr** , **Blight** , **Rippersnapper** , **Twinstrike** , and **Windrazor**."

While most of the Predacons showed some sign of respect towards their current hosts, others like Lazerback, Blight, and Twinstrike paid no such signs either because they did not want to or because they were not quite following along as closely due to their lower levels of intelligence. Zarak did not seem to take notice of such things though, as he simply looked over Predaking and his brethren for a few minutes before he asked the proclaimed Master of the Predacons, "You and your brethren are strong I take it?"

"Yes," Predaking replied. "Like our ancient ancestors who had lived so long ago, the Predacons have no equal in sheer strength, ferocity, and battle. Those who face us are only able to fight back in the hopes of surviving, for they have no chance of truly defeating even one of us. I can say this with utmost confidence, having faced an army of Autobots and their human allies alone myself, and consequently stood victorious after tearing apart some of their machines with ease."

The smirk that came to adorn Zarak's face was one of both evil and almost childlike anticipation after he heard this, and immediately demanded that Cyclonus redeploy his forces along with the Predacons the moment they had tracked down the Cerebros's forces again. Before Cyclonus could respond though, Predaking immediately insisted that he and the Predacons would locate the Autobots and the rebels themselves, since they were great trackers by nature, and both leaders nodded in allowance of this. Once they were well out of hearing range, Lazerback approached his king and demanded, "Why are we taking orders like this, Predaking? We are clearly more powerful than these pathetic Headmasters, so I say we should just kill them all and ravage the world until there's nothing left of it."

"Bite your tongue, Lazerback," Ser-Ket hissed. "You would do well to watch how you speak to our lord and master."

"You have no need to defend me, Ser-Ket, my dear," Predaking soothed the female Predacon before he drew his attention to the smaller, red and purple member of his brethren. "We are doing as the one called Zarak asks because it will help to further Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset's plans, my young brother. We may be more powerful than these beings, but never forget that we serve Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset, and not them. So long as we have reason to allow their existence to continue, they will live, but once that runs out…"

"We end them like the worms they are, correct," Scourge asked, excitement at the prospect of battle seeping into his every word.

"Indeed, brother," Predaking confirmed. "Now let's be off to hunt down our prey, and allow Scrapper's team to complete their task as quickly as possible."

The Predacons all grunted and murmured in excitement at what their king had promised, and Predaking himself could not help but smirk a little in anticipation for what promised to be his greatest hunt yet.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, Cerebros and his allies finally agreed to accept whatever help the Autobots could give them, and shortly afterwards, they received word of a group of strange machines doing some digging a short ways away from their old base. When the heroes of Earth and Cybertron heard that the machines all had a green and purple color scheme to them, they immediately realized that the machines the scout had seen were the Constructicons, and they were all quick to roll out to the location that had been specified along with Cerebros and his generals. Once they had arrived, they were all quick to take cover a reasonable distance away, so that they could confirm whether or not the Constructicons were in fact the ones that were doing the work, which Athrun and Blaster were working on doing right at that very moment.

"Well," Hardhead asked after a few minutes, his tone icy enough to show that he still did not trust the Autobots, much to everyone's annoyance.

"It's definitely the Constructicons," Athrun confirmed. "But I can't figure out what they're doing down there."

"I think it's pretty obvious," Shiho stated. "They've located the reservoir and are now digging it up."

"If that is the case, then we may have bigger problems than you realize," Highbrow stated.

"That being," Elita asked.

"You see that mountain over there," Cerebros indicated, directing everyone's attention to the large mountain a short distance away from the Constructicons. "That's the mountain in which our richest and oldest mines are located. Even after it was discovered centuries ago by the Headmasters who first settled on this world, it is still rich with various minerals that we require for our society and energon."

"And if the Dark Energon reservoir really is down where the Constructicons are digging, then it'll cause the mines to explode the minute it erupts," Chromedome continued on.

"An explosion of that magnitude would do much more harm to the planet as a whole than just this area," Brainstorm then stated. "By our calculations, the explosion of the mines, coupled with the eruption of the reservoir would cause nearly a quarter of the planet to be destroyed, which would kill millions of lives."

"Then that's all the more reason why we can't let those 'Cons unleash it," Shiho stated as she prepared to charge her Gundam forward, but she quickly brought herself to a halt when Athrun signaled for her to wait. "What? We have to get down there, or weren't you paying attention to what the good doctor said?"

"I was, but I also remember the last time we tried to fight the 'Cons in the vicinity of an active Dark Energon reservoir," Athrun pointed out. "The 'Bots were seriously weakened, and our own mobile suits weren't fairing much better."

"Athrun is correct," Drift nodded. "I have no wish to experience the pain and horrors of feeling Dark Energon's influence running through my circuits again, a sentiment that I am certain we all share."

"Hey, no need to get your cogs in a bunch. Here's a little something that's sure to help with that bad punch," Blaster rapped as he pulled out a few different gadgets and handed them out to his fellow Autobots and the Headmasters.

"What are they," Strongarm asked.

"Dark Energon's bad effects will stay at bay thanks to this gadget, which is graciously provided by Wheeljack and Ratchet," Blaster rapped once again.

"And in English," Cagalli asked.

"It's a special shielding device that works like a human radiation suit for Transformers," Elita One elaborated. "With these things on us, we should be able to stay at full strength, even if the reservoir erupts."

"And you're sure they'll work," Heine asked.

"Uh…no; it hasn't been tested yet," Elita admitted. When she saw everyone's worried looks, she quickly added, "But considering how much work was put in to make sure they block out the effects of Dark Energon, I'm confident that it will work."

"That's good for you guys, but what about us," Shiho asked, gesturing between herself and her fellow pilots. "I doubt that we can apply those things to the Gundams."

"Don't worry," Athrun immediately said. "Miss Erica and Banagher were working around the clock to install a shielding system that would keep our machines safe. It's not a complete guarantee that it will work, but it should keep our systems relatively safe, in theory."

"How safe is relatively safe," Strongarm asked, hoping that they would not have to worry about their human allies too greatly.

"If I understood them right…about sixty to seventy five percent safe," Athrun admitted.

Everyone was silent at this new information, until Cagalli eventually said, "Well, it's better than nothing, so we'll just have to make do for now."

The group nodded in agreement with the blonde, and immediately prepared themselves for action, by either strapping the gadgets on or climbing into mobile suits and readying weapons. Grimlock had just unfolded his sword when he looked to the sky and said, "Me, Grimlock see something flying this way. Look like big bird."

When the rest of the team turned to where Grimlock was looking, they all had to squint a little before they finally realized exactly what it was that Grimlock was seeing, drawing astonished looks to the faces of Cerebros and his people, and horrified ones to that of all the others. "That's not a bird," Elita whispered. "That's the Predacon!"

"And he's not alone. Look down there," Heine pointed out, indicating the ground near the Constructicons. Looking to where Heine had indicated, everyone immediately sighted the other Predacons heading their way right behind their leader. While they all had different aspects to them, such as whether they were able to fly, had two heads, or just had larger jaws than the others, the one commonality between each Predacon was that they each seemed to be some form of dragon-like creature.

"That's…a lot of Predacons," Shiho whispered.

"And it looks like they're all heading straight for us," Cagalli pointed out, leading everyone to see that Predaking, Skylynx, and Darksteel were all almost directly above them, and preparing to unleash a blast of fire from their beast modes' mouths.

"MOVE, NOW," Elita shouted, but no one needed the femme to tell them that, as the group was already scrambling to get away before the fiery blast had struck them. After he had rolled to his feet, Grimlock looked up at Predaking with narrowed optics and tossed his sword directly at the leader of the Predacons. When the blade struck, Predaking was knocked out of the air, mostly due to the shock of having been hit by a retaliation so soon, and the draconic transformer soon crashed to the ground right in front of Grimlock.

"You dare to challenge me," Predaking snarled once he had assumed his robot mode. "You are a fool to think that you, a feeble, small minded Autobot, would have any chance against me. I'm smarter than you, more merciless than you, and above all else, I'm stronger than you."

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say, because much like a certain comic book hero, the one thing that Grimlock could not stand was someone saying that they were stronger than him, and he made that quite clear when snarled at Predaking and then roared, "No one is stronger than GRIMLOCK!"

Predaking was not even able to blink before Grimlock was directly on top of him and pounding him with every ounce of strength that the Dinobot possessed. When Grimlock's final blow sent Predaking flying across the ground, the Predacon leader wiped his mouth for a minute before looking up at the Dinobot, and then smirking in excitement. Predaking then armed one of his arm plasma cannons and charged Grimlock once again, colliding his weapon with Grimlock's sword once he was close enough, and then firing. The blast was enough of a shock to push Grimlock back a little, but not enough so that the Predacon was out of the Dinobot leader's striking range, which he proved by delivering a mighty slash across Predaking's chest. Predaking stumbled for a minute due to Grimlock's attack, and when he looked to where Grimlock had struck, he was surprised to see that the Dinobot's sword had actually dealt a small scratch onto his armor, something that no one had managed to do before. Another glance up at Grimlock, and Predaking could honestly tell that he was going to enjoy this battle far more than he had originally thought.

From where he was watching the battle between the two bestial Transformers, Athrun could honestly say that the battle unfolding between Grimlock and Predaking was unlike anything he had ever seen before, and given how much of his power he was putting into the fight, it was now clear as day that Grimlock had been holding back a surprising amount of his strength when he had fought in the past. This time though, the Dinobot was unleashing every last ounce of power he had, not only because he needed it, but because his current opponent could take it. This was clearly the sort of challenge that Grimlock had been seeking for some time now, but Athrun could not think about that at the moment, due to the fact that there were more important matters to deal with on his end.

One of the most important matters for both the Gundam pilots and the Autobots was to prevent the Constructicons from combining together, because they all knew that the minute the Decepticon combiners became Devastator, the battle would become much harder to win, if not nearly impossible. Thankfully, the Constructicons seemed to have no intention of joining the fight, but that also served as a problem, because they were continuing to dig up the area that the Dark Energon reservoir was believed to be under, so if they were to prevent the reservoir from erupting, they had to find some way past the other Predacons, a fact that Hardhead vocalized for everyone. "We're open to suggestions on how to do that," Shiho shouted as she swerved the Rosso Aegis's fire truck mode around the battlefield before transforming it back into a Gundam and firing it's blasters on Darksteel and Skylynx.

"I'm going to break through the enemy lines and engage the hostiles," Strongarm suddenly shouted, and before anyone could stop her, the Autobot cadet had already transformed into vehicle mode and begun racing through the various battles towards the Constructicons. Each member of the team was more than eager to move in to help the young Autobot, but with so many Predacons bearing down on them, it was hard to do anything of the sort. Thankfully, it seemed that Strongarm just might be able to pull off the risky move she had undertaken, but a sudden burst of flames from Twinstrike soon sent her flying into a nearby cliff, causing a small avalanche to nearly fall on her, much to everyone's horror.

"Someone get over there and get that kid some place safe," Elita shouted.

"Copy that boss lady. Blaster's on the move and more than ready," Blaster replied before he sent out his Mini-Cons to assist in the battle and then transformed to race over to Strongarm's location. Once he had reached her, the rapping Autobot immediately transformed into robot mode again and began pulling Strongarm to safety, just in time for Hun-Gurrr to take notice and give an order that none of them were expecting.

"We shall fell all who stand in our master's way. Abomination Clan, unite into **Abominus** ," Hun-Gurrr roared. A minute later, Blight and Rippersnapper had changed into their beast modes before changing into a pair of large, clawed legs, which Hun-Gurrr soon mounted himself on top of once he had changed into a large, red torso. Soon after, Twinstrike and Windrazor had become the left and right arms, respectively, and joined together with their brethren, forming a massive, hideous beast that was unlike any other combined form that any of the Autobots and their allies had ever seen.

"And I thought that Bruticus was a monster," Cagalli whispered when she saw the combined form of the five Predacons.

"Like a single Predacon on its own wasn't bad enough," Shiho moaned in agreement. "Now we've got to deal with this thing!"

"Well you know what they say," Heine shouted as he launched the Saviour's hot rod mode up a slope and into the air towards Abominus, transforming the Gundam into its mobile suit mode the minute it was in the air. "The bigger they are, THE HARDER THEY FALL!"

Heine's efforts were not met with good results, as the minute that the Saviour had slammed into the massive Predacon, he only served to deal some damage to his own mobile suit, while Abominus suffered no injury at all. Heine was about to change the Saviour into its mobile armor mode, but Abominus proved to be faster than his massive size made him seem, as he dealt a swift pair of blows against the red mobile suit, sending it crashing into the cliff face of the nearby mountain. Cagalli was the first to react to their teammate's fall, as she transformed the Diamond Akatsuki into its seaplane mode and flew over to where Heine had fallen, but unfortunately, she did not realize that the straightest route to the Savior took her right into the path of Grimlock and Predaking's battle, which had now descended into a battle between Grimlock's tyrannosaurs form and Predaking's dragon form.

Due to this oversight on the blonde girl's part, the Diamond Akatsuki ended up colliding directly into the side of Predaking, just as he was lashing out a powerful tail swipe at Grimlock, throwing both the Predacon and the human pilot off balance, and sending them tumbling into one of the nearby caves. When Cerebros saw this, he immediately shouted, "Get those two out of there, now! That cave's unstable!"

Sadly, Cerebros's warning came too late, because the minute anyone started moving towards the two, the cave had started to collapse, sealing both Cagalli and Predaking behind a massive wall of rocks and boulders, much to everyone's horror, but none more so than Athrun, who cried out in fear for the safety of his wife, who was now trapped in a massive mine with one of the most dangerous and deadly beings that they had ever known to have existed in the entire universe.

* * *

 ** _AN: Wow, a lot happened this time, eh? All these new Predacons, the world of the Headmasters, and we once again revisit the fact that Mu and Murrue are going to be parents soon. Yeah I felt I had to include that scene involving the two's soon-to-be-born child both for the purpose of lightening the mood of the story a little, and so that no one would forget that was a thing here. I'm actually still on the fence about whether or not Mu and Murrue's kid will be a boy or a girl, and what said kid's name would be, but I'd like to think I'm getting close to a final decision, and if you want to have a voice on that matter, by all means._**

 ** _Speaking of voices on a matter, what do you guys think about Kira's latest idea for a battle cry? I'm honestly leaning towards it a bit myself, but if you guys think it could be better, please let me know, because at the moment, that's really the best idea I've got right now._**

 ** _Also, the Headmasters, yeah they're here now, and if you have a hard time thinking of them, just look back at their original appearances, except in the case of Cerebros, who looks a bit more like he did in Transformers RID (2001). Also, with this chapter, we now have the full Predacon team, which is comprised of Predacons that were meant to be part of Transformers Prime, with the addition of Scourge from Transformers: Cybertron. You can look the others up on the Transformers wiki page for Transformers Prime Predacons if you want a better idea of their appearance beyond what I gave if you want._**

 ** _One more thing, I have the Headmasters referring to themselves as "we" instead of "I" because when I went back and read that the Headmaster technology was like a kind of symbiosis, I immediately thought of the symbiote from Spider-Man, and at the same time, it also allows me to have just the 'Bots themselves, because I did not feel all that confident in the way of having both the Headmaster 'Bots and their partners._**

 ** _Finally, the vehicle modes for the Savior and the Rosso Aegis, just think of the vehicle modes for Hot Rod from G1 and Inferno, respectively, in each mobile suit's colors. Yeah...that's really the best I could come up with for them, besides, they can already fly with their suits' mobile armor modes, so it made sense to essentially make their machines into the closest thing that Transformer Gundams can achieve to being triple changers._**

 ** _Dearka: [still being cuddled by Miriallia] Hey, not that I mind the treatment I'm currently getting or anything, but have you figured out how to change me back yet?_**

 ** _AN: Uh...well I'd say that takes care of everything for now, so let's wrap this up. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _As the battle on the surface of Nebulous rages on, Cagalli and Predaking find themselves forced to rely on each other as they struggle to find a way out of the mines they have now been trapped inside of, which leads the two to having an unexpected moment to learn about one and other. As Cagalli discovers a little more about her newest enemy, and Predaking learns more about his supposed prey, the battle to keep the Decepticons away from the Dark Energon reservoir takes an unexpected turn when the Hive joins the battle, leading both Zarak and Cerebros to unveil their full power. Meanwhile on Earth, the mission that Kira and Bumblebee are leading in Thailand seems to be going smoothly, until an old enemy unleashes a new problem that could spell trouble for our heroes. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 14: Shocking Discoveries** ** _. Prepare yourselves for the terrors that lie ahead, Autobots and Gundams!_**

 ** _Cagalli: Well, looks like I'm in for quite the...interesting adventure next time._**

 ** _AN: I know right? I've been itching to get to that point in the story myself._**

 ** _Dearka: Seriously, you guys are going to change me back to normal sometime soon, right?_**

 ** _AN: Miriallia, can you keep an eye on him until we figure something out?_**

 ** _Miriallia: My pleasure. [Grins mischievously]_**

 ** _Dearka: Something tells me I'm not going to like being like this for much longer in a minute._**

 ** _AN: And on that note..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and we'll see you next time!_**

 ** _Can we get Axel from Kingdom Hearts on the phone please! I need to talk with him about his spoiler prevention gimmick._**


	14. Shocking Discoveries

_**AN: Hey guys, lyokoMARVELanime here, and we are back for more with Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters!**_

 _ **Bumblebee: Hey, where're Dearka and Miriallia? I thought they would've been here too.**_

 _ **AN: [coughs lightly] Oh uh...funny story, actually. Remember how last chapter my latest spoiler prevention thing turned Dearka into a puppet, and I asked Miriallia to take care of him until I figured out how to change him back?**_

 ** _Nicol: It's a little hard to forget to be honest, especially when we've still got the pictures._**

 ** _AN: Yeah well...here's the funny part...I still have no idea on how to change him back, and even if I did, I have no idea where Miriallia went with him. When I tried calling them, it just went right to voicemail, so...I have no clue what to think. But thankfully, they won't have to do much in this story for a while._**

 ** _Knockout: Well can we hurry this along? I'd like for us to at least get to where Optimus gives Kira..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]_**

 ** _Knockout: Ah scrap. [gets blasted by massive laser that kicks up dust cloud]_**

 ** _Lunamaria: He's not going to turn into a puppet too, is he?_**

 ** _AN: Nope. I'm not using that thing anymore until I figure out how to reverse it, but I think you'll like this even better._**

 ** _Cagalli: Why? [looks to see Knockout has turned into a tiny, human baby with red hair]_**

 ** _All the girls in the room: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeee!_**

 ** _Knockout: [starts crying as girls start cooing over him about how cute he's become]_**

 ** _Shinn: These spoiler prevention things just keep getting weirder and weirder with every new chapter they're used in._**

 ** _AN: Don't look at me. It's not easy coming up with new stuff that hasn't been overdone or used at least once by now. Anyways, let's roll out to the story!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Shocking Discoveries**

There were some days that Cagalli was certain that there was some sort of spell or higher being looking out for her, because that was really the only explanation she could think of as to how she had survived so much in her lifetime. Obviously she managed to live through the battles in Africa with the Desert Dawn, she lived through being shot down and crash-landing on a small island in the middle of the ocean, she barely escaped Orb before it was completely burned down, she fought in and made it through the battle of Jachin Due, and then there was everything else that had happened during the Terrible Autobot Civil War, so one would have to assume that she had some special charm on her or that she was much more skilled than many would suspect her to be. Of course, after looking over her situation of being trapped in a mountain cave that was likely to explode at any second if she was not careful, the idea of her being charmed quickly became replaced with one of her being cursed, especially given who she was trapped with at the moment.

Predaking was a bit disoriented when he regained consciousness, so Cagalli thought that she had a chance to either get away from the massive beast or finish it once and for all. She was well aware that the former option was much more likely to succeed than the latter; she had seen what that thing had done to her friends in the past, and she was not stupid, but before she could gun the Diamond Akatsuki in any direction, the Predacon leader was able to shake all cobwebs from his head and then fix a ferocious glare on her Gundam. A minute later, Predaking was rising to his feet and slowly charging towards her, barely leaving her enough time to move away and let him slam into the wall that was previously behind her. Cagalli knew that if the mines were likely to explode due to exposure from the Dark Energon reservoir, then it was just as likely to have similar consequences if she used any of her blasters or other long-range weapons in the cave, so she quickly armed both of the Diamond Akatsuki's arm blades, which held a significant similarity to Arcee's, and raised them in defense for Predaking's next attack.

It was a good thing that the blonde had prepared herself in the way that she did, for a moment later, she found herself pinned against another cave wall and just barely keeping the Predacon back with said arm blades. "You will pay for your interference in my battle, worm," Predaking snarled as he pushed down on the diamond and gold mobile suit.

"You're not seriously telling me you're that upset about the fact I accidentally flew into the path of your fight with Grimlock, are you," Cagalli asked in disbelief.

"Grimlock," Predaking repeated, as if he were testing the name on his tongue. "The one who takes on a form similar to my own…a fitting name for the first worthy foe I have faced since I gained awareness."

"So, you're saying that you don't consider the rest of us worthy to fight you or something," Cagalli retorted as she continued to try and push the Predacon off her.

"In the battles I fought against you and others like you, you always fought with an ally by your side, always needing help to fend me off. Can you tell me that you honestly believe you can even push me back on your own," Predaking asked. When Cagalli said nothing in response, Predaking just smirked and replied, "I did not believe so. Though I can guarantee that you will need no help in meeting your end at my hand."

"Keep dreaming, monster," Cagalli snarled, and a minute later, something stung Predaking on his back, much to his surprise, giving Cagalli an opening to finally push the beast off with a hard shove and a swipe from one of her suit's arm blades. Looking back at the Gundam, Predaking was able to see her recall the DRAGOON that the blonde had used to hit him from behind at close range; an unexpected tactic that Predaking had to smile a little at, but not one that he would stand for as he proved by readying his right plasma cannon. Before the beast could fire though, Cagalli immediately raised her machine's hands up in warning and shouted, "NO DON'T! You'll bring this whole mountain down on us if you use that thing in here!"

"If my existence must end in order for you to perish, then so be it," Predaking snarled as he charged up his weapon.

Cagalli knew she had to think fast if she were to stop Predaking from burying them all alive, and that was when it struck her. "You do that, and you'll be damning all of your kind as well," Cagalli then shouted.

That got Predaking's attention, causing him to cease charging his weapon and then lower it as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Cerebros told us, himself," Cagalli explained. "This whole mountain is one of the oldest and richest mines on the planet, and if we were to so much as use our weapons in here, it will spell disaster for us and everyone near the mines as well. Last I checked, both of our forces are right outside fighting, so if you really are as much of a leader for the Predacons as your name suggests, than I'm guessing you don't want that."

"You are attempting to convince me of something that is not true in order to secure a victory for yourself," Predaking accused.

"You mean bluffing," Cagalli asked. It was a few seconds until Predaking finally nodded in reply, to which Cagalli replied, "Are you sure you want to take that risk?"

Predaking paused to consider his options carefully for a minute, until he finally changed his plasma cannon back into a hand and stopped over to the rock wall that had trapped him in the mine with his enemy. "I must warn my brethren of this information," Predaking determined aloud. "If what you say is true, then unearthing the Dark Energon reservoir would be disastrous."

"You think," Cagalli asked, rhetorically. When the Predacon started bashing away at the rock wall, Cagalli noticed some more of the cave was beginning to come down, and some of it was about to crush Predaking beneath the boulders. Cagalli would later wonder why she did what she did, only to think that it was something she did out of reflex, but whatever the case, it did not change the fact that the minute she saw Predaking was about to be crushed, she immediately rushed the Diamond Akatsuki over and pushed the Predacon leader out of the way just seconds before the rocks had hit the ground he had been previously standing on.

"You dare to touch me, lowly worm," Predaking demanded once he had pushed the girl off.

"You're right. I'm sorry that I saved you from getting crushed because of the fact that you nearly brought the ceiling down on top of us with your banging on the blocked entrance," Cagalli retorted with absolutely no shortage of sarcasm. When Predaking looked away with a huff, Cagalli just sighed irritably and said, "Look we obviously can't force our way out of here so we'll just have to try and find another way to escape this rat trap, and considering that we have no idea what's down here, then we'll just have to watch each other's back until we do get out, so do you think we can call a temporary truce or something until then?"

Predaking considered Cagalli's suggestion for a few minutes until he finally relented and said, "If I must tolerate your presence, then you will walk ten paces behind me at all times."

"You can't be serious," Cagalli exclaimed. "Are you really going to be one of those kind of people right now?"

Predaking said nothing in reply and just started stomping into the mines, the walls echoing with every one of his footfalls. Cagalli just sighed in response to the Predacon's silence and moved the Akatsuki forward after said beast was a reasonable away from her, and muttered, "This should be fun."

* * *

Outside of the mines, Athrun was going crazy as he continued using the Infinite Justice to move the rocks out of the mine entrance, but for every rock he moved, another five seemed to fall down into its place, much to the blue haired boy's irritation. It did not help that the battle was still going on around him, or that the Constructicons seemed to be getting closer and closer to their goal, but at the moment, Athrun could not care less since his wife was trapped in an old mine that was liable to explode at any moment with Predaking. Once he had finally gotten fed up enough with moving rocks by hand, Athrun decided to switch to using the mysterious feature in his Gundam to get through, hoping against hope that it would activate this time, but sadly, he had no such luck in getting whatever weapons system the control activated to work.

"Come on, come on, you stupid piece of junk," Athrun growled, irritably as the machine's monitors displayed the "insufficient power" warning once again with his most recent attempt. "How the hell can there not be enough power?! You run on an Energon Reactor Core! There should be no way in hell that there's not enough power, so just stop saying that's the case and help me get to Cagalli!"

"Athrun, calm down," Heine shouted as the Saviour flew over to Athrun's position, firing it's Plasma Beam Cannons as it did. "There's no use in getting all worked up like this, especially when we've got to deal with…"

"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME TO CALM DOWN," Athrun shouted. "My wife is trapped in there with a monster!"

"And you won't be able to help her at all if you die in this battle, or if that Dark Energon Reservoir is unleashed," Shiho reasoned as she brought the Rosso Aegis over and out of its mobile armor attack mode. "Once we deal with these guys, we'll be able to do a lot more for Cagalli, but we can't do anything with you like this, so get it together."

"How can I when the woman I love could be dead in there for all I know," Athrun shouted. "I'm not going to just leave her like this when I know that…"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, MAJOR ZALA," Elita shouted, getting all three pilots' attention. "We're all worried about Cagalli, but we can't do anything for her at the moment, so until we are able to, we need to focus on the matter at hand."

Athrun knew that they were right, and after he had calmed down enough he was able to see that much more clearly. Cagalli could handle herself very well, a fact that he probably knew better than anyone alive, save for Kira and Arcee, so he took a calming breath and said, "You're right. I'm sorry guys. I just…I mean…"

"Don't worry about it," Elita reassured him. "We'd all have reacted the same way in your position."

Athrun nodded in thanks to Elita, and then brought his attention back to the battlefield, where Abominus continued to rampage through their friends and allies. Seeing this served as all the reason Athrun needed to arm the Infinite Justice's arm blasters and charge forward with the Saviour, the Rosso Aegis, and Elita right behind him, each firing everything they had at the monstrous Predacon. Athrun took a small notice of some of the remaining Predacons having a similar dispute to the one that he was having earlier with his friends, but he filed it away for later as they finally made it over to where Blaster was taking cover after he pulled Strongarm to safety. After taking another glance at their surroundings, Athrun was able to see Strongarm was being looked after by Brainstorm, and the cadet seemed to be doing much better than he originally thought.

Still, mere appearances did not mean that he should not at least ask how the young Autobot was doing just to be certain, and so Athrun looked to the Headmaster doctor and asked, "How's she doing, Brainstorm?"

"You're ally shall be fine, Athrun Zala," Brainstorm replied. "We've already repaired the most serious damage, and she should be able to rejoin the fight once we're finished with a few last examinations."

"That's not necessary. I can rejoin the fight if you need me to, sir," Strongarm tried to insist. "Tried" being the keyword, as the minute that Strongarm tried to stand up, she found herself unable to keep from groaning a little in pain, even as Brainstorm gently pushed her back down.

"Save your strength, soldier," Athrun ordered the cadet. "Unless you have a full okay from the doctor, I don't want you taking anymore risks like the one you just took a little while ago, or did you forget that's what landed you in your current position? Let Brainstorm give you a clean bill of health, and then you can rejoin the fight."

"Understood, sir," Strongarm muttered in defeat.

Athrun had to smile a little at the fact that Strongarm was clearly eager to do whatever she could to help, but it seemed that her head was not quite as much in the right place as her heart was at the moment, and that always spelled bad news for someone, especially a rookie like the young femme. Athrun was well aware of how ironic such thoughts were at the moment, considering what he was doing just a minute ago, but there was no time to dwell on it, because they needed a plan on how to either take down Abominus or break through the Predacon defensive line to get to where the Constructicons were. It was a matter that everyone was more than open to suggestions on.

"Perhaps one of us could reattempt Strongarm's earlier tactic," Hardhead suggested, throwing a look at the Gundams and Autobots, clearly showing who he had in mind as the ones to charge in.

"No, it's too risky," Elita immediately waved off. "We can't take the chance of losing anyone else for whatever reason in this fight, because if we don't win here, there may not be a planet left to fight for."

"You might want to tell Zarak that," Highbrow suggested. "Maybe if he knew what would happen if he let these guys continue, he'd do something to stop them too."

"I doubt that," Cerebros denied. "Zarak has never cared about the risks involved when it comes to retaining his dominance over this world."

"And it looks like he doesn't care whether or not how dirty his hands have to get either," Chromedome stated. "We've got Hive warriors inbound, and it looks like they brought the rest of their new friends with them."

A quick look up from where they had taken cover immediately told everyone that the Headmaster scout was accurate in his report, for Zarak and his forces were heading straight towards the battlefield with Cyclonus, Demolisher, Blackout, and Astrotrain right alongside them. This was not something that any of them wanted to deal with right now, as it meant the odds were just sinking further and further away from being in their favor. It seemed like the other Headmasters were about to start panicking a little while the Autobots and the humans started to feverishly think of anything that they could do to stop their enemies, but thankfully, Cerebros said something that seemed to stop any sort of frenzied reactions cold.

"It would seem that if we are to survive this, I must do something that I had hoped I would never be forced to do in this long struggle," Cerebros had commented.

"Hey man, I don't get it. What you talking about, Slim-Fit," Blaster rapped in confusion, and even though they would have phrased it differently, the other Autobots and the Gundam pilots were all just as confused by what Cerebros had suggested. That confusion only furthered when Cerebros's fellow Headmasters' eyes widened a little in surprise and then began voicing protests.

"Cerebros, are you sure about this," Highbrow asked.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," Hardhead insisted. "We can still think of something else."

"We no longer have the time to do so," Cerebros argued. "If I don't do this now, then we may not have much of a world to fight for, or even one at all."

"I may not know what's going on, but if there's some sort of risk to your wellbeing Cerebros, then I can't let you do this for our sake," Elita then cut in, adding her two cents to the argument. "This was our battle long before your people were involved, and I can't ask you all to do anymore than you already have done."

"This may have been your battle before our world was brought into the crossfire, Elita One, but it is now our world on which the battle rages, and that same battle now rages within a battle that I have been fighting for many cycles," Cerebros reasoned. The leader of the Headmaster rebels then smiled as he added, "Do not worry, my friends. There is no risk to my wellbeing, as you may fear, and even if there were, this is my choice."

When Cerebros said that, all other arguments had died in everyone's throats. For the Headmasters, it was because freedom of choice was something that they had been fighting for ever since their rebellion had started, and to keep their leader from doing something that he chose to do would be a contradiction to everything they were fighting for. It was the same story for the Autobots and Gundam pilots, as they had always fought for freedom of others, and under the belief that freedom was everyone's right, so if they tried to stop Cerebros now, then they would be hypocrites to one of the very things they had all been fighting for, so in the end, they all found that they could only nod in acceptance of Cerebros's suggestion. After giving his friends and allies his thanks, Cerebros requested that someone help him reach a specific place that he would need to be in order for his plan to work, and Drift was quick to volunteer, given that he could be able to reach the location faster than anyone else, due to his helicopter mode, which he quickly assumed and then allowed Cerebros to grab onto.

As he watched his leader fly off with the samurai Autobot, Hardhead looked to the remaining off-worlders and commented, "You know, I think I'm starting to accept you guys as our allies. You're alright."

"Glad you think so, now let's show these punks what we're made of, bro," Blaster rapped, and he could not help but smile when Hardhead bumped fists with him with a smile of his own.

All smiles quickly vanished when Zarak suddenly stopped and then smirked as the ground rumbled beneath everyone's feet, drawing all fighting to a sudden pause so that the combatants could see what was causing the sudden disturbance. When they saw the source, the heroes of Nebulous, Cybertron, and Earth all gasped in shock at the sight of what appeared to be a robotic scorpion that was massive enough to be an entire city on its own. A minute later, Zarak suddenly jumped into the air and transformed into a black head with a red visor for eyes, and orange colored horns, and his actions seemed to trigger a response in the massive, metal monster, as the beast suddenly began to rise up and shift until a pair of massive legs, arms, and an equally massive body stood towering over the battlefield. The beast stood motionless for a few minutes, and without a head, until the thing that was once Zarak suddenly docked on top of the shoulders of the massive beast, drawing a ferocious roar out of it as a ripple of fear ripped through anyone who was not on this massive being's side. A ripple that grew into a wave as the same beast shouted, "Tremble before our might, for Scorponok lives again!"

"That is definitely not good," Strongarm whispered.

"That's putting it mildly," Shiho retorted. "As if the Predacon combiner wasn't bad enough, now we have to deal with a Headmaster the size of Tidal Wave!"

"We don't know who this Tidal Wave is, but I don't think you'll have to worry about Scorponok for too long, our friends," Highbrow reassured everyone.

Before anyone could ask what he meant by that, a massive shadow suddenly fell over them, and the heroes all turned to see what looked like a large, white, blue, and steel-grey starship flying over their heads towards the battlefield, and upon closer inspection, everyone could see Cerebros was standing atop the massive ship alongside Drift. After Drift had jumped down to his friends, Cerebros leapt into the air just as Zarak had done a moment ago, which seemed to signal the ship he and Drift were previously standing on to suddenly start changing into a being that was just as massive as Scorponok, who also had a number of cannons in his arms, chest, and legs. It did not take long to figure out why the new arrival had no head, and that idea was confirmed when Cerebros suddenly transformed into said head and rested himself upon the titan's shoulders, leading said transformer to draw a massive, red and black saber from his back as he announced, "Fortress Maximus heeds the call of the people of Nebulos."

Seeing that they now had someone just as big as Scorponok on their side seemed to give the Autobots, the Gundam pilots, and their allies quite the morale boost, which only increased when Fortress Maximus opened fire on and seemed to injure Abominus, and thus the true battle for the Dark Energon reservoir of Nebulous began, a battle that Athrun hoped would end quickly so that he could help Cagalli.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

While things were continuing to fall into chaos on Nebulous, they seemed to be looking a little better on the homeworld of humanity, at least in the case of a small village in Thailand that was being flooded after the nearby dam had started to collapse, mainly because Bumblebee, Evac, and Ironhide had just arrived on the scene with the Strike Freedom, Star Force Strike, and Grand Destiny Gundams right behind them. After taking a quick glance at the scene around them, Bumblebee was slightly relieved to see that the villagers had already started to set up something of a temporary dam to slow the flooding of their home, but the work was still slow going, as evidenced by the fact that some of the flood waters had already seeped through and into the town. Once he had finally finished taking in the scene before him, Bumblebee looked to his current teammates and immediately began giving out orders. "Ironhide and Kira, you guys and I will help the people set up the temporary dam," Bumblebee stated. "Mu, I'll need you to do a quick fly over of the village to make sure that no one else is still trapped in there. You find anyone though, you are to evacuate them to higher ground before coming back here to help in evacuating the other people and assisting in building the dam as well. Evac and Shinn, you guys…you okay Evac?"

Bumblebee's sudden question immediately drew everyone's attention to said Protectobot, who was currently holding a hand to his head as he rubbed his optics for a minute. When he felt everyone's eyes on him, Evac shook himself out of what was clearly a sudden bout of tiredness and insisted, "I'm alright, Bee. You guys just go on and help the people. Shinn and I will stop the leak at the source."

"If you say so," Bumblebee said as the helicopter 'Bot transformed and flew off towards the dam, with the Grand Destiny following close behind. Bumblebee was fairly certain that Evac was just trying to cover up how tired he really was after doing so much back-to-back rescue work with his team lately, but if the Protectobot said that he was okay to keep going, then Bumblebee was not going to question him on it. Even if Evac was not at that point though, there was not any time to wait for someone else to come in to take his place, so the Autobot warrior just turned his attention to where the people working on the temporary dam were gathered and immediately raced over with the rest of his team right behind him.

Once they were close enough, Kira transformed the Strike Freedom into its vehicle mode, and piloted his machine over to where the materials for the dam had been gathered for the moment. Once he was close enough, Kira triggered a special control that allowed a large, grey trailer with the image of a Gundam's head on either side to suddenly materialize from the back of the Strike Freedom's truck mode. Seeing what had just happened caused Mu to pause for a minute until he commented, "I didn't know you could do that, kid."

"I just found out about it pretty recently myself," Kira explained as Ironhide started loading the trailer with some of the materials while Bumblebee helped to stack the materials already at the temporary dam's location. "Optimus told me he used to be able to do this with his old alt mode all the time, so one day I figured I'd see if I could do the same with the Strike Freedom, and…there it is."

"Pretty impressive. You keep doing incredible stuff like this, and I might suddenly start to feel a little jealous of you," Mu admitted in a lightly joking tone.

Kira chuckled a little at his friend's comment before reminding Mu of his current task, at which point Mu took to the skies in the Star Force Strike's Sky Grasper mode, and quickly flew off to find anyone who had not evacuated the village yet. Once Mu was well on his way, Kira jumped out to help Ironhide load materials into the truck trailer so that they would not keep everyone waiting for too long, much to the Autobot weapons specialist's relief. As he loaded the large, heavy bags, Kira found that the ill feeling he had earlier before he and the rest of the team had left for Thailand had not faded, leading him to wonder just what was about to happen that would bring about such a feeling.

* * *

Evac and Shinn were extremely relieved to see that nothing else had happened to the dam that would have caused it to collapse any further than it already had in the time it had taken them to get there, but they knew that could change at any moment, so they quickly set to work with repairing the massive, stone structure. This was accomplished by having Evac lower a special set of metal patches from his helicopter mode, which Shinn then carefully guided into place before welding them into the dam with the Grand Destiny's blasters set to the appropriate low setting for welding work. The reason why Shinn was guiding the metal sealants into position was because if either he or Evac had done it alone, they would have run the risk of slamming the metal sealant against the dam too hard, which would lead to the dam collapsing further than it already had. That did not mean it would fall apart completely, but it would fall apart enough for the temporary dam that Kira, Bumblebee, and the others were helping to set up to need to be bigger than it currently was.

"That should do it, Evac," Shinn called out once he finished sealing the most recent patch into place and detached the cables connecting Evac to said patch. As the helicopter Autobot flew back, Shinn could not help but notice that said Autobot was more sluggish in his movements than usual, and that immediately caused him to become concerned for the Protectobot. "Are you sure you're okay, Evac," Shinn asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Evac insisted.

Shinn was about to question his friend a little further on the matter, when a sudden lightning bolt suddenly flashed through the sky and struck one of the patches that they had just put in place. The lightning strike caused the patches to immediately be blasted off of where they were, opening up the crack that the two had just sealed a minute ago once more, and causing the water to come rushing forth. "You've got to be kidding me," Shinn groaned. "After all that hard work?"

"Well whoever said lightning doesn't strike twice on this world was clearly mistaken if this is any indication," Evac lightly joked, and he quickly released a new patch as he flew up to where the water was seeping through, with Shinn joining him a moment later. The work was going well, but Evac knew that it could be going better if he was not so tired at the moment. He did not want to admit it, but he did acknowledge that he was very tired after doing so much work, but at the same time, he knew full well that Shinn would not be able to do this job alone, along with the fact that Bumblebee would not be able to get anyone out here any time soon, so Evac continued to solider on and fight back against his exhaustion, all so that he could make sure that he fulfilled his part of the mission.

What Shinn and Evac did not know, was that a small group of people were currently standing at the top of the dam, and if one were to take into account that they were preparing a number of various missile launchers, then it was safe to say that they were not there to help repair the dam, and they were also not supposed to be there at all. When one of the people stood to his full height, the small amount of light that shone through the otherwise cloudy skies allowed one a very good view of the symbol on his chest, which was revealed to be an Autobot symbol that had been twisted enough to look like a skull with a large slash running through it. That same symbol was worn on the shoulders and chest armors of the other members in the group, and once they had finally finished readying their weapons, the first one to stand up looked to his comrade that was currently lying down on the edge of the dam while he gazed through a pair of binoculars.

"Well, what's the word," the man who had stood up first asked.

"There's one of those lousy invaders flying around by the dam along with one of those abominable mobile suits, and another two of each are over in the village right now, continuing on with their act of 'helping the people'," the man looking through the binoculars reported.

"Excellent," the first man grinned. "We'll be able to take out all of them in one fell swoop, and all we have to do is hit those two by the dam first."

"But what about the villagers," another person asked, this one clearly being a woman.

"What's it matter to you, Jamie," the first man, who was now clearly the leader, asked. "They're obviously sympathizing with those monsters, and you know what happens to those kind of sympathizers."

Jamie seemed to look down in shame for a minute before she answered, "They must be wiped out along with the invaders."

"Outta girl," the leader congratulated. "You'll be a real sister to the cause in no time after this little operation."

"Thank you sir," Jamie nodded, and she then raised her weapon up onto her shoulder before joining her comrades in taking aim at Evac and Shinn.

The leader then did the same after ordering the one gazing through the binoculars to move away, and once he had Evac in his crosshairs, he whispered a small mantra. "And now, we shall vanquish the evil monsters from the Earth for good, and reap their souls from their bodies. Hail Whistling Reaper."

* * *

He was not sure how long they had been working, it honestly felt like it had been a few hours at least, but Kira was more than happy to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw that they finally finished work on the temporary dam. After a few bursts of extra sealant to keep any water from seeping through, Kira climbed down from the Strike Freedom and gave the temporary water blockade a small kick to test its durability, an action that Ironhide also performed just to be on the safe side. "You really think this pile of sand bags is going to keep the village from getting waterlogged," Ironhide asked, his skepticism showing clearly.

"It doesn't have to hold forever," Kira told his large friend. "It just needs to hold until Shinn and Evac get the actual dam fixed. More importantly, it just needs to keep the village from getting any more flooded than it already is so that we can get everyone to safety."

"Kira's right. We've done all we can here, so now we just have to leave stopping the rest of this flood to Shinn and Evac," Bumblebee nodded. The former scout then looked over to the Star Force Strike, which had returned from its fly-over of the village and asked, "You're sure the village is completely cleared of civilians just in case?"

"Yep, no one in sight of the place aside from the people who stuck around to set up the temporary dam," Mu confirmed, much to everyone's relief. Bumblebee then moved off to help Ironhide in getting the last group of civilians to safety, leaving the two Gundam pilots to themselves, and giving Mu the chance to ask, "So Kira, does that whole thing with the truck trailers only work with that kind of trailer you made a minute ago, or does it have any kind of diversity?"

"It doesn't have any limits, actually," Kira explained. "I found out after my first attempt at making the trailers that I could make any kind of truck trailer I wanted, depending on what the situation called for."

"Would that include a moving-truck trailer," Mu asked, his tone sounding a little too mischievous for Kira's liking.

Of course, Kira knew that whatever Mu was planning, it was probably just as a joke, so he decided to play along and quipped, "You know Mu, I don't think Natarle would be too happy to hear that you're trying to find any way you can think of to kick her out of the house."

"Alright, you got me. I don't know how you could've possibly discovered my evil plan," Mu joked in reply. When Kira did not say anything in reply though, Mu began to get a little worried and immediately pleaded, "You were joking about that, right Kira? Because I was joking when I said that…Kira…Kira?!"

At the sound of Mu's distress, Kira could not hold it in any longer, and immediately burst out laughing, knowing that the older pilot was likely giving him a less than humorous look right now for the Ultimate Coordinator's little prank. It really felt good to be able to laugh right now, especially given the circumstances of the times they were currently facing, but all laughter quickly evaporated when the sound of an explosion caught the entire team's attention. Looking to the source, they all quickly saw smoke rising in the direction of the dam, and a minute later, they all saw a large wave of water heading straight towards them. Ironhide and Bumblebee were both quick to tell the remaining civilians to get away, and the minute the last person was clear, the two were quick to join Kira and Mu at the temporary dam as they prepared to do whatever they could to increase the size of said dam. Before they could get started though, something caught Ironhide's attention, leading him to pause for a minute.

"Hey guys, I think there's something in the water," Ironhide called out as he pointed towards the incoming wave. The other three immediately looked at where Ironhide was pointing, and their eyes all became the size of dinner plates when they not only saw what was in the water, but also when they recognized what it was as well.

"SHINN! EVAC," the team all exclaimed in horror, for there, tumbling through the water as it sped towards the village, were in fact the Protectobot leader and the Grand Destiny. Everyone was quick to try and raise their two teammates on their comm. links, but they were met with nothing more than radio silence on Shinn and Evac's parts. After one last attempt to get in touch with the two, Bumblebee decided to focus on the more immediate matter at hand, and turned to Ironhide as he ordered, "Start handing out as many energy shield generators as you've got! We'll use them to set up a stronger and larger dam."

Ironhide immediately nodded and quickly tossed a pair of said devices to each member of the team. Once everyone had the shield generators in hand, they quickly activated said devices and placed them down on top of the dam, increasing their size to cover as large and as wide of an area of the dam as possible. The minute the shields were at their maximum width and height, Ironhide and the others immediately set the generators to be fully active at all times and placed a series of staffs up against the barriers to help hold them in place for when the water hit. It did not seem like it was going to be enough though, despite having covered the entirety of the temporary dam, but there was not any time left to set up anymore of the generators. That was when Kira suddenly glanced at the other Gundam that was with them at the moment and smirked upon remembering a special feature said mobile suit possessed.

"Mu, fire up the Stark Force Strike's absorption system," Kira called out. Mu was about to ask why he was doing that, since said system could not absorb water, when the Strike Freedom suddenly raised its arm blasters towards him, causing him to raise his shield and activate said system on reflex. Kira then fired a constant blast from the Strike Freedom's arm guns and multi-phase beam cannon, and it was no time at all until the Star Force Strike's shield had absorbed every last ounce of energy that he had unleashed, at which point, Mu finally figured out what Kira was planning.

"Next time give me a little more of a heads up before you start firing on me," Mu told Kira as he brought the Star Force Strike in front of the temporary damn and directed its recently collected, excess energy into the suit's defensive systems, creating a massive energy barrier that covered the entirety of the area before the dam.

"Less whining and more blocking," Ironhide shouted as he and Bumblebee transformed into vehicle mode and placed themselves against the energy shields that they just set up, while Kira moved the Strike Freedom to stand behind the Star Force Strike and provide additional support in its own defense. A few tense seconds later, the water struck the barriers, and with a hard push back from the heroes on the opposite side of said barriers, it was quickly diverted away from the village along with the rest of the water that had flown out before. This was a relief to everyone, but there was still the problem of Shinn and Evac being in the water as well, and the minute that those two struck one of the barriers, both temporary dams would come tumbling down.

"Shinn…Shinn, come in," Kira called into his comm. link while Bumblebee called out to Evac. "Shinn, pull up! Pull up now!"

Through the shield that the Star Force Strike was generating, everyone could see the Gundam and the Protectobot drawing closer and closer with every passing second, and they all immediately braced themselves for impact, eyes shut tight in anticipation, even as the sound of thrusters roared from directly overhead. After a few more tense minutes of waiting, the team was surprised to find that the barriers had held, and they took a quick peek to see that the Grand Destiny and Evac had disappeared from the water. They all spun around frantically in an attempt to find them, until a sudden whoop of joy from above them lead them all to look up and see a small, white and green Autobot ship flying overhead with Evac's helicopter mode attached to a set of capable.

"Oh god, is that you Wheeljack," Mu exclaimed once he recognized the voice behind the excited whooping.

 _"Who else do you know that handle the old_ Jackhammer _, here, like that,"_ the sword-wielding Wrecker's voice replied.

Kira was happy to see that Wheeljack had managed to pull a last minute rescue for Wheeljack, but his worry quickly returned when he noticed that there was still no sign of the Grand Destiny. "Wait, where's Shinn? Is he okay," Kira called out.

 _"Not to worry, Kira. I have got him,"_ a familiar, baritone voice then called out, and upon looking to the sky once again, Kira had to smile in relief once more when he saw Optimus flying a short distance from the _Jackhammer_ with the Grand Destiny safely in his grasp. Still, seeing the mobile suit in one piece did not mean that its pilot was okay, and Kira was quick to start calling out to Shinn once again.

Eventually, Kira received a reply, as the crimson-eyed pilot groaned, _"This is the Grand Destiny Gundam, Shinn here. I'm alright, over."_

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Shinn's voice, and Kira quickly got down to business and asked, "What happened up there, Shinn?"

 _"The last thing I remember was helping Evac repair the damn when I suddenly spotted something shinning up on top of the dam above us,"_ Shinn reported. _"A quick zoom-in of the area revealed that it was a group aiming rocket launchers at us. I quickly alerted Evac to the problem and tried to get away, but Evac didn't seem to react fast enough for some reason, so we ended up getting hit by the missiles. The next thing I knew, Evac's tail was slamming into me and sending my machine hurtling towards the dam out of control and…urgh…I must've blacked out or something afterwards."_ The comm. link was then quiet for a minute until Shinn suddenly exclaimed, _"Wait, Evac! Is he okay?"_

 _"Relax kid, he's out cold, but he's otherwise fine from what I can tell,"_ Wheeljack reassured Shinn and everyone else. _"I may not be a doctor like old Ratchet, but I do know when someone is dealing with a major energon depletion like Evac is right now. Nothing too serious or anything, just enough to keep someone in stasis for a long time."_

"Unbelievable," Ironhide sighed.

"What? What is it," Mu asked.

"Whatever amount of energon Evac had left in him was being used to help him stay awake, but it was all quickly used up when his personal shields needed to keep him from receiving any serious damage," Bumblebee explained. "To put it simply, he's completely exhausted and has fallen asleep because he couldn't keep himself awake any longer."

Every single human on the team just gaped in open-mouthed astonishment at hearing this, but in the end, everyone could help but laugh it off in good humor until Mu thought of something. "If someone was firing rockets at Shinn and Evac, then something tells me that Whistling Reaper is behind it," the Hawk of Endymion reasoned. "We should get someone up there to take them in."

 _"Not to worry, Commander Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus have already taken care of that matter,"_ Optimus reassured everyone. _"They will transport the terrorists into custody while the rest of you finish repairs on the dam, and Wheeljack brings Evac back to base for a well deserved, long rest, along with a proper examination from Ratchet just to be on the safe side. Once you are all finished however, I will need Bumblebee, Shinn Asuka, and Kira Yamato to report to the Sol Federation's Lunar Base at once. I will meet you all there along with Arcee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Crosshairs, Springer, Rey Za Burrel, and Lunamaria Hawke."_

Everyone was quickly confused by that last order, and the urgency in Optimus's voice when he gave it was not missed by anyone. "Is everything okay, Optimus," Kira asked. "What's wrong?"

 _"There is no time to explain now! Carry out your orders, and I will see you and the others at the Lunar Base once you are all ready, Kira,"_ Optimus replied. Seeing as they were not going to be getting any answers out of the Last Prime for the moment, the team just nodded in understanding of the orders and immediately set out to finish their mission, all the while wondering what had happened to get Optimus so worried.

* * *

 **Location: Nebulos Mines**

It turned out that moving through the mines was a better idea than Cagalli and Predaking realized, because it was not long after they started moving that they found out that they were not the only ones in said mines. The caves were crawling with various, dangerous creatures that could tear through the cavern walls like they were paper, and it did not take much for the two to realize that the monsters would very much like to either eat them or tear them apart. To be honest, neither Cagalli nor Predaking could have survived unless they were together, a fact that Predaking seemed determined to never admit, much to the blonde's growing irritation. Then again, when you are constantly on guard for a sudden attack from whatever sort of beast that wished to attack you at all times, it would be hard for anyone's patience to not run thin, but when one has someone like Predaking for a partner, that patience runs thin much more quickly.

Eventually, the two had ventured so far into the cave that they could not hear the sounds of the battle that had been raging outside when they had been trapped, but they were not sure if the various earthquakes that shook the caverns around them every now and then were a sign that the battle was still going on or if it were something else getting ready to attack them. Still, there was no denying that they had been down there for too long to have really kept track of such things, so after a brief argument on whether or not they should, the two agreed to set up a temporary camp so that they could take a brief rest. After making sure that her trusted mobile suit was secured, Cagalli then decided to disembark from the Diamond Akatsuki in order to stretch her legs for a minute, an action that she noticed had quickly drawn Predaking's attention.

"What're you staring at," Cagalli asked.

"You are…like Commander Le Creuset," Predaking stated slowly.

Cagalli's face immediately narrowed into a scowl before she snapped, "I am NOT like Le Creuset! I'm more human than that _clone_ could ever hope to be, even if he was human."

Predaking was not sure why the blonde was upset by his words, but he did not let her anger deter him from explaining what he meant. "I only meant that you are the same sort of species as he is," Predaking clarified. "You are both these small, organic life-forms, and yet you wield such large, metal machines. How is such a thing possible, and just what are you?"

Cagalli was stunned at these questions, but she immediately shook it off and replied, "The metal machines are mobile suits, mine and my friends' being in a special class of mobile suit known as Gundams. They're just machines that we drive in order to fight, and in answer to your second question, I'm a human from Earth. You should know what that place is seeing as you helped Galvatron cause something to happen that's now made a mess of the planet."

"What is this…Earth you speak of," Predaking asked, his expression showing that he was completely serious when he had voiced the question.

Now Cagalli was very confused. How could the Predacon not know what Earth is when he had been there before? It did not make any sense to Cagalli, but she figured she might as well answer Predaking's questions in order to help her understand, so she simply replied, "Planet Earth is my homeworld, and that of all of humanity, like Cybertron is for you and other Transformers. You've been there before, or did you forget how you brutally attacked some of my friends while helping Galvatron to set off that Dark Energon volcano?"

"I am not from Cybertron," Predaking snarled, but his expression quickly softened before he continued on to the a statement that threw Cagalli for a loop. "And I do not remember much of my earlier existence. All I do remember are small bits and pieces such as hunting, battle, and the wounding of my pride."

Cagalli was honestly surprised to hear this, but after thinking about it for a minute, it would make sense that Predaking would not be able to remember everything from his life so easily, as he did seem to have only gained his new sentience rather recently. Still, one thing in particular caught her attention. "What do you mean by 'wounding of your pride'," the blonde asked. "I think I'd remember hearing if any of us ever beat you that badly."

"It was not through battle that my pride was wounded, but rather through…other means," Predaking stated with a far-off, yet slightly angered expression. The look immediately vanished and became replaced with a scowl as the Predacon added, "But I have no reason to share such information with you, an enemy of Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset, and by extension, an enemy of mine and my brethren."

Cagalli had to admit that Predaking did have a point in saying that. There was no reason for Predaking to tell her anything since they were enemies, but then again, they knew nothing about each other beyond what they had been told of one and other by their respective allies. Knowing this gave Cagalli what may have been her craziest idea yet, but it was one of those ideas that may have been worth the effort of at least trying, so she decided to give it a shot. "My name's Cagalli, Cagalli Yula Athha Zala," the blonde said to the Predacon leader with a smile.

"What importance should such information have to me," Predaking demanded, but it was clear that his expression was merely hiding a state of confusion at the blonde's sudden introduction.

"Like you said, we don't have any reason to trust each other or tell one and other anything, and the best way to help deal with that kind of thing is to know a little more about the person you're working with, starting with their name," Cagalli explained as gently as she could.

Predaking was finding the blonde to be getting stranger and stranger by the minute, but he did not see any harm in obliging her in this little theory, so he decided to roll with what she was going with. "I am called Predaking, Master of the Predacons, leader of the new generation of my brethren, and the first herald to the Predacons' return to glory," Predaking announced in a grandiose tone.

Cagalli looked at Predaking a little funnily for a minute before she smiled and asked, "Mind if I just call you P.K.?"

Now it was Predaking's turn to give the blonde a funny look, until he asked, "Why would you call me that? It is not how I had introduced myself."

"It's a nickname," Cagalli replied. When Predaking just gave her a blank expression, Cagalli went on to explain, "You know, something that a friend or a certain person calls you as a way of remembering you a little more easily, or just as a sign of friendship."

Predaking just stared at Cagalli for a few more minutes before he finally said, "You have very strange customs, Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala."

Cagalli's attempts at covering her laughter due to what Predaking had called her only resulted in a small snort, leading Predaking to ask why she seemed to be laughing. "Because the way you addressed me is a little funny," the blonde explained.

"Funny," Predaking asked, as though the word were alien to him. Of course it turned out that was because it sort of was, because the next thing that he asked was, "What is this 'funny' that you speak of?"

Cagalli just looked at Predaking like he had just grown a second head, truly not believing what she had just heard. The serious expression on Predaking's face only increased her disbelief, but she still attempted to answer the Predacon's question as best as she could by saying, "Well, it's something that makes you laugh. Not like you've probably heard Galvatron or Le Creuset laugh, but really just for the sake of laughing. You know, something like a joke, or when a friends says or does something that is really ridiculous." Predaking did not say or do anything in response to Cagalli's answer, and the blonde took that as an opening to ask the big question that had now found its way into her head. "How do you not know stuff like this," the blonde inquired. "I mean, I get not knowing anything about Cybertron or of your earlier life before this…change, but how can you not know something so basic?"

"Because it has no importance to me," Predaking replied. "The only thing that matters to a Predacon is the hunt, battle, and the honor that comes with both. More importantly, if it does not involve returning the Predacons to their former glory, then I do not see why it should matter to me at all."

"But everyone needs to take a moment to just relax and laugh for a bit," Cagalli argued. "I mean, what's the point of living from just one battle to another, especially when you don't have something to really fight for?"

"You think my quest to restore my brethren's lost glory is nothing," Predaking hollered.

"I never said that," Cagalli countered. "Look, as a leader myself, I get wanting what's best for the people you lead, but there's no point in doing all that if you can't really bring yourself to show them that there's more to life than just fighting day-in and day-out like your suggesting, or that they can find their own reason to live."

The two fell silent at that point, neither saying anything for some time, but the silence was quickly brought to an end when a massive, worm-like creature suddenly burst through the walls, barreling towards them. Cagalli was quick to dive out of the way and try to get into the Diamond Akatsuki, but the creature quickly blocked her path, preventing her from even grabbing the boarding cable. Thankfully, Predaking was able to bash the beast aside before it could cause any harm to the human girl, but such action only lead the beast to draw its attention onto the Predacon leader. Predaking may be a warrior that lives for exciting battles, but even he knew when he should not take such dangerous risks against a powerful opponent, so he was quick to try and avoid the worm-like creature's attacks with surprisingly quick reflexes and a few occasional hard punches, which served to disorient the creature long enough for him to slip out of its grasp. It was not enough to stop the creature, so eventually, Predaking swallowed his pride and called, "Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala!"

Cagalli did not need for the Predacon to say anything beyond that, as she had already grabbed what she needed from her Gundam, and she was soon climbing up the rock walls of the cave. Once she was high enough, she spun a cable around in her hand before tossing it towards the creature, where it hooked onto its back, giving her what she needed to swing over and climb onto the monster with her energon pistol ready. A small glance between herself and Predaking immediately let the Predacon know what she was up to, and Predaking had to give a small smirk as he readied his plasma cannon and aimed into the creature's mouth, firing at the exact same time as Cagalli had, and sending a massive amount of blaster fire down its throat. The barrage of attacks from the two warriors served its purpose, and Cagalli considered herself luck that she was able to jump clear from the creature's back before it burrowed away in fear of the two who had just given him a very unpleasant snack.

"I get the feeling that break time is over," Cagalli commented once she had holstered her pistol, and she quickly climbed back into the Diamond Akatsuki so that she and Predaking could move on before something else tried to kill them. After going a little ways further into the cave and not encountering any more creatures, Cagalli thought of something she had not before in regards to Predaking, and she felt that now was as good a time as any to ask him about it. "Do you…have any friends?"

Predaking stopped in his tracks for a moment, leading Cagalli to bring her Gundam to a stop as well so that she would not leave her temporary partner behind. There was a long, strained silence between the at that point, until Predaking finally answered, "What is a friend?"

It was hard for Cagalli to believe that this was the same beast that had attacked her friends on Earth, Velocitron, and Junkion in the past, but considering that Galvatron was his leader, it eventually became not as much of a surprise to Cagalli that Predaking would not know about this particular topic. "Well, a friend is someone that's really important to you," Cagalli tried to explain. "Someone who you can talk to about almost anything, share personal secrets with, and who you enjoy spending time with, no matter what you're doing."

"I have my brethren," Predaking then said, thinking that was what Cagalli was trying to describe.

"Well I suppose that kind of counts, but aren't the other Predacons more like a family to you," Cagalli asked. She was relieved to see that Predaking seemed to know what a family was, if the fact that he nodded in reply to her question was any indication, so after giving a silent sigh of relief, Cagalli then went on to say, "Well it is good to consider family as your friends, but if you don't have any friends beyond that, then you're kind of isolating yourself from other people that would want to form a bond with you. I mean, you can't always talk to family about everything, and you also can't always do everything with family either, but having some other friends lets you really explore more of the world around you while helping you to discover things about yourself and other people you never knew about before. More importantly, it allows you to really connect with others in a way that you can't with family."

Predaking fell completely silent at Cagalli's words, letting them run through his processor for a few minutes once she had finished her speech, and he continued to think on the matter even as they began to walk again, until he finally determined that he did not really have an answer to Cagalli's original question. It was not that he thought the matter was unimportant, but he honestly did not think that he had the time to busy himself with things like friends when it came to his goals as leader of the Predacons and as a follower of Galvatron and Le Creuset. In all honesty, he did not think it was very likely for him to make any real friends, since the only thing he received from those that were not fellow Predacons was harsh words and near torture, namely from those such as Cyclops, who Galvatron had assigned to train Predaking before he had gained his new sentience. Still, the idea seemed strangely appealing to Predaking for reasons he could not understand. He was about to comment on the matter to Cagalli when he suddenly paused his tracks and began looking around the cave, almost as though something had caught his attention.

When she noticed that Predaking had stopped, Cagalli came to a halt as well and asked, "What is it? Please tell me you're not going to go on with the ten paces behind thing again."

"I can sense them," Predaking muttered.

"Sense who," Cagalli asked in mild confusion, or at least mild in comparison to the confusion she felt from earlier when she was talking to Predaking about all the things he did not know before.

"My brethren," Predaking exclaimed in what Cagalli assumed to be the closest thing to joy that Predaking had shown outside of battle.

Still, that left something unanswered. "How could you possibly sense them down here," the blonde asked.

"Predacons are hunters by nature," Predaking stated factually. "As such, we have an acute sense that tells us where others like us are so that we do not mistake one and other for prey. It is a sense that can be picked up at any time, and is almost always accurate. More importantly, from what I can sense, they are just right outside…this wall here!"

Cagalli looked to see that Predaking was pointing at the far wall on her left, and she immediately started up the scanners in her mobile suit. After a few short minutes, Cagalli finally reported, "I'm not picking up on any materials that the Diamond Akatsuki's scanners can recognize in the area, and that's especially true in the case of that wall there, so that should mean that if we were to use our weapons here…"

"There would not be any possibility of us destroying ourselves," Predaking finished for the girl, and he quickly armed both of his plasma cannons while Cagalli readied the Diamond Akatsuki's arm blasters. Before they began to fire on the wall though, Predaking looked to Cagalli and felt the need to ask one more question. "Do you have any…friends?"

Cagalli paused when she heard this question, but it was not because she did not know how to answer, but rather because she was not expecting to hear such a question from Predaking. "Yeah, I've got a lot of friends," Cagalli replied. "They're all people I care about, and I honestly don't know where I would be today if I had never met them. I'd like to think that I'm a much better person just for having known any of them at all."

Predaking stared at Cagalli in contemplation for a minute, until he eventually nodded in acknowledgement of the blonde's answer and prepared to fire his weapons once again. As Cagalli did the same, Predaking could not help but feel as though the young lady had given him much to think about once he returned to the Decepticon base after this mission was over.

* * *

If you thought that the battle on the surface of Nebulous would have improved with the addition of Scorponok and Fortress Maximus, then you would be wrong, because in reality, it had actually descended further into chaos. The two titans were so massive that everyone was having to watch out for themselves and each other just to make sure no one ended up getting stepped on as the two titans battled it out, even in the case of Abominus, who had now been split back into the five separate Predacons he was made up of due to an attack from Fortress Maximus. Despite all this chaos that had descended upon them, the Autobots were more than certain that they would soon secure victory in this fight, not only because the Predacons' mightiest warrior was now out of play and the bestial Transformers were also cut off from Predaking, but because Fortress Maximus's addition to the fight was serving to also drive their enemies back little by little, so it would be no surprise at all if they eventually managed to drive the Constructicons away before they even reached the dig site as well.

Sadly, such hopes were quickly dashed when the Constructicon known as Scavenger suddenly paused in his digging, and then moved back to allow a dark, evil, purple glow to suddenly illuminate the area of the dig site. "I've found it…I've found it," Scavenger called out. "We've struck Dark Energon!"

Indeed, the Constructicons finally unearthed the Dark Energon, but thankfully, it was not to the point that it would have erupted like it had on Earth. That did not mean that it could not be mined at this point or that any of the substance's harmful effects could not be unleashed, as the heroes quickly discovered. The minute that the Autobots began to feel the Dark Energon weakening them, Elita immediately ordered her team to activate the shielding devices that Blaster had handed out to everyone, and once they were on, everyone was relieved to discover that the shields worked exactly as they were meant to have, while the Gundams did not seem to suffer from any malfunctions like they had before, much to the pilots' relief. Unfortunately, while the Autobots and their allies were protected, the same could not be said for their opponents. While the Decepticons were a little more used to the influence of Dark Energon, having been around it for so long now, the Hive had never experienced anything like it in their lives, and they were all immediately beginning to feel greatly weakened, much to their confusion.

This sudden bout of weakness ended up providing Fortress Maximus with just the opening he needed to send Scorponok crashing to the ground, and ejecting Zarak from the massive titan's shoulders. As soon as he had been detached from the larger body, Zarak was unable to catch himself before he suddenly began tumbling down into the pit that the Constructicons had dug in their excavation, and into the Dark Energon bellow him. The minute he had struck the substance, Zarak cried out in agonizing pain, as the dark substance suddenly seeped into every crevice of his systems, poisoning every inch of his being, until he finally became unable to take anymore and fell into a deep stasis.

Seeing their leader defeated like this served as enough incentive for the Hive to turn their furry on to the heroes who had defeated him, none of them caring if they lived or died any longer. Before anyone could launch any form of attack though, an explosion suddenly rang out from the mountain, distracting Athrun and the others long enough for the Hive and the Decepticons to attempt to fire everything they had on the heroes, only to find their attacks blocked by a blue energy shield that was suddenly generated from a set of gold DRAGOONs. Any sense of confusion quickly evaporated when a sudden fire blast struck the ground between the two sides, drawing everyone to look and see the Diamond Akatsuki and Predaking flying towards them, much to the relief of Athrun and the Predacons, respectively.

As soon as the two warriors had landed on their respective sides, Cyclonus was more than prepared to give the order for his forces to attack once again, but immediately paused when Predaking raised his arm in front of the Decepticon commander. "What now," Cyclonus moaned.

"Our mission was merely to unearth the Dark Energon, correct," Predaking asked.

"Yeah, so what," Cyclonus retorted.

"If I am not mistaken, that goal has been achieved, and there is no reason for us to remain," Predaking went on to reason.

"You can't be serious," Cyclonus hollered. "We can't just leave it like this! They'll be sure to cover it up and the thing will never erupt then! Besides, we can still take these losers down in no time for the glory of…" Cyclonus was forced to cut his rant short when a transmission suddenly came in over his comm. link, and drew his attention. A few tense moments later, Cyclonus muttered a confirmation into his comm. link and turned to his comrades to announce, "Decepticons, we are to return to base. Lord Galvatron has deemed our mission here over, and he has asked us to bring the members of the Hive with us."

The other Decepticons all nodded in understanding, and soon enough, Cyclonus was leading his troops through a Decepticon Space Bridge, with Astrotrain providing transport for Demolisher, the Constructicons, and a few of the Headmasters of the Hive, while the remaining Hive members moved Zarak onto Scorponok's body and engaged the massive body's space ship mode so that it could follow as well. At that point, the only ones left to stand against the Autobots were the Predacons, who seemed to be ready for a fight, but when the beast-bots looked to their leader for his command, they were surprised to see that Predaking was hesitating to give any orders at all. Such a thing came off as strange to everyone present, except for one person in particular, who Predaking eventually decided to address.

"Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala," Predaking called out, never noticing the small snickers that Heine and Shiho could not keep suppressed when they heard what the Predacon leader had called the blonde girl. "Today I owe you my life, so my brethren and I will leave you in peace for now, but rest assured, when we meet again, it will be on the battlefield as enemies, so do not expect that debt to hold."

Cagalli was silent for a moment, but eventually she just nodded both her own head and that of the Diamond Akatsuki, and asked, "Are you really sure we have to be enemies? You may have been created by Galvatron and Le Creuset, but that doesn't mean you have to do what they say. You could come with us and help us stop him."

Predaking seemed to consider her words for a moment, until he finally said, "I am afraid that we cannot do that. Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset have given us life and have promised to help us restore our kind to their former glory, and as I have already explained, that is one of my greatest purposes for existing right now." Predaking then paused for a minute, somehow feeling as though he could sense the blonde's disappointment, until he finally added, "But I will admit…you have given me some things to…think about."

Cagalli had to smile a little at hearing that, and then settled for watching the Predacons turn towards the Space Bridge so they could return to the Decepticon base as well. Before he entered the portal though, Predaking threw one last look over his shoulder in the direction of the heroes' resident Dinobot and declared, "You have proven to be a mighty opponent, Grimlock. I hope to meet you again in battle soon."

Grimlock smirked at hearing that, and then punched a fist into his hand as he said, "Me, Grimlock looking forward to that. Still have punches for Predaking."

Predaking smirked a little in response and then transformed into his dragon mode and led his brethren to the Space Bridge as he said, "Truly a worthy adversary."

Soon after, the Predacons had vanished into the Space Bridge, and everyone finally felt that they could breathe a sigh of relief for the fact that the battle was finally over. Athrun tried asking Cagalli about what had happened down in the cave, but Cagalli just waved him off saying that she would explain later, immediately telling Athrun that she did not want to talk about it just yet. Eventually, the silence that had fallen over the group was broken again when Grimlock asked, "What is ad…adver…what is thing that Predacon call Grimlock?"

No one was sure who had started, but it was clear that everyone found such an innocent question from the Dinobot leader to be funny, and they were all laughing immensely in mere seconds, much to Grimlock's confusion.

* * *

It took a while to clean up the mess that the battle against the Hive and the Decepticons had caused, but thankfully, the team was able to eventually straighten things out on Nebulous, and with the Hive now gone, Cerebros was eventually convinced to take over as leader of the planet, at the insistence of the people that he and his friends had fought so hard for. Even though the effects of the Dark Energon reservoir were not so harsh due to how little of it was surfaced before the enemy forces were driven away, Elita and Athrun both agreed that it would be better to not just leave it alone, so they soon set up a security perimeter around the area with a little help from Hardhead that would ensure that no one would be exposed to any danger if there was any still present. Once they had concluded that their business on Nebulous was complete and had gained Cerebros's word that he and his allies would come to their aid should they ever need it in the future, the Autobots and Gundam pilots quickly boarded the _Lemuria_ and set out into space, ready to return home. Everyone was certain that their little adventure had finally come to an end, but they quickly received evidence that said otherwise.

"Sir, I'm not receiving clearance to access a Space Bridge for the return trip to Earth," Strongarm eventually reported, gathering immediate concern from everyone.

"Can you explain why," Elita One asked.

Strongarm's hands were quick to race across the console along with Blaster's, until the former eventually replied, "No, it's like someone's either blocking us or already using the bridge."

Before anyone could ask why they were getting such readings, Blaster reported that something was approaching via a Space Bridge right at that very moment, and the crew was immediately bracing themselves for another battle against their enemies. Luckily, such precautions were not needed, as the ship that emerged from the Space Bridge was one of their own, much to their relief, and not just any ship either. There, coming in to fly alongside the smaller craft, was none other than the _Omega III_.

Everyone was glad to see what had now become known as the Autobot flagship flying outside, but it did little to hide the fact that said ship would not be out there for no reason. This was quickly confirmed when Optimus's voice suddenly called out through the radio, _"_ Omega III _to_ Lemuria _. Please have Athrun and Cagalli Yula Athha Zala transfer over along with their machines at once. We need them for an urgent mission."_

"Optimus, what's going on," Elita asked. "Has something happened on Earth?"

"And more importantly, why do you need just me and Athrun," Cagalli asked.

 _"There is no time to explain now,"_ Optimus half-shouted, much to everyone's surprise. _"Please just have Athrun and Cagalli transfer over as quickly as possible. I have located the final set of colony world coordinates that we require, and I will need Athrun and Cagalli's assistance if this mission is to succeed."_

"Hold up a sec now, dogs. Is the big boss saying he's going there himself when we make this call," Blaster asked.

"Is that not somewhat risky, Optimus Prime," Drift asked.

 _"Perhaps, but it is one that we must take in order to succeed, given where we are going,"_ Optimus answered, and if one were to guess from the grave tone in his voice, everyone would say that Optimus was showing some small signs of fear or even worry. Knowing that it would take a great deal to worry Optimus Prime, Athrun and Cagalli both just stated that they would grab their mobile suits and transfer to the _Omega III_ as quickly as they could, much to the Last Prime's relief, and the two then left the bridge to board said Gundams.

Once Cagalli and Athrun were out of the bridge and likely in their mobile suits, Elita faced the monitor once more and asked the all-important question. "Just where exactly are you going to be heading," Elita asked her sparkmate, concern dripping with every word she spoke.

Optimus seemed to hesitate for a minute, until he finally replied with the one name that none of the Transformers ever expected to hear in regards to the worlds they would need to travel to in this mission. _"Quintessa."_

Every single Transformer immediately felt their energon run cold when they heard that name, and they could do nothing more than act out of reflex like they were on autopilot for everything else that was said and done on both ships until after Athrun and Cagalli had finally finished joining Optimus and the team he had gathered together on the _Omega III_. At that point, the larger Cybertronian ship moved past the _Lemuria_ to open a Space Bridge behind the smaller craft and depart for its destination, leaving Elita to command her vessel to return to Earth as quickly as possible, all the while praying that her husband would be safe, as Optimus Prime and all those he was traveling with at that moment were about to walk right into the home of the most dreaded enemy in all Transformers' history: the Quintessons.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well that all happened. Cagalli's had a little heart-to-heart with Predaking, the problems on Nebulous are dealt with, and now Optimus is leading a team right into the jaws of the worst villains in all Transformers history! ...Oh wait, that last one's not such a good thing._**

 ** _Bumblebee: Ya think?!_**

 ** _AN: Oh relax, Bee. It may not actually be what you think it is in this case. More importantly, I had always pictured Cagalli having a little one-on-one chat like that with Predaking for a little while now, and that in effect would get Predaking thinking a little more about what he's really fighting and living for. In all honesty, some of it was actually inspired by stuff I had seen in other series before, but I just couldn't pass up the chance to use any of it. Especially in the case of the whole "Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala bit". [chuckles] Ahem, moving on..._**

 ** _I included that little moment on Earth because I wanted to show off some of the problems that are still going on the home front for our heroes, because if you may have noticed, aside from that one moment in the "Day of Transformation Chapter" where the Autobots are stopping a fire, we haven't really done much more than just elude to what's been happening on Earth. This also allowed me to give Whistling Reaper at least one real appearance in this story, as I know some of you have requested in the past. Speaking of requests, sorry to "Many Faced Mage" that I was unable to have Predaking go into detail about his treatment from Cyclops, but I did elude to it, and I promise that we'll be seeing some of that next chapter._**

 ** _Finally, Fortress Maximus and Scorponok. Be honest, how many of you thought I wasn't going to put them in here? I did want those guys to show up, since they are both big parts of the Headmasters, no pun intended, and at the same time, it also gave me a chance to have a Metroplex like character in this story without having Metroplex himself in here, as you may have guessed by what Fortress Maximus said when he stepped onto the battlefield, and yes, that is the reason why Cerebros and Zarak do not refer to themselves as "we" instead of "I" like the other Headmasters._**

 ** _Also, in response to another review, I'm afraid that there will not be any Maximals or really all that much from Beast Wars showing up in this story, but if you do want to see anything like that, I'd recommend taking a look at Secret Wars: Gundam SEED Prime by "UltimateGundamFighter". Trust me, the story may not be all that long just yet, but he's been doing a great job with that little tie-in story so far he's been working on._**

 ** _Now I know what you're thinking: lyokoMARVELanime, you are so evil to just send leave us hanging like this after the way you ended this chapter! Why do you insist on leaving us in such horrible suspense?! Well let me tell you why with this simple explanation...It's because it helps to make a good story. Besides, considering what's going to happen next chapter, I think you'll understand soon enough. Speaking of which, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The ultimate team of Gundam pilots and Autobots in the Cybertron Cosmic Era set out for the world of beings that Cybertronian history has stated to be terrible monsters, as Optimus soon reveals to his young friends who are unfamiliar with the stories of the Quintessons, and the group cannot help the worry that soon begins to overcome them at hearing such a tale. When they finally arrive on Quintessa, they are slightly surprised to find that Cybertronians are the ones who are considered evil by the Quintessons, but the stated, yet vague reasons are not what they expect. Will a meeting with one of the last Quintessons allow Kira and the others to clear up the confusion in this history? Meanwhile on Chaar, the Predacons find themselves subject to abuse from Cyclops, while Galvatron reveals that the they are entering the final stages of merely the first phase in his ultimate plan. Just what could the servant of Unicron be planning, and how will Quintessa fair in the coming storm? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 15: Tragedies before Nightmares** ** _. Optimus, Gundam pilots, seek out the truth before that fire burns all in its path!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see you next time!_**


	15. Tragedies before Nightmares

_**AN: Hey everyone, I am lyokoMARVELanime, and we are back once again with what could be one of the longest chapters in the story so far, and one of the most saddening, given what will end up happening.**_

 _ **?: DAH! NEAR SPOILER! BANG-BANG-BANG, SPOILER PREVENTION GAG THINGY!**_

 _ **AN: OH COME ON ALREADY! You're not even part of either franchise involved in this crossover series, Deadpool you idiotic maniac!**_

 _ **Deadpool: But Transfomers was once part of MARVEL, right? So it's all good**_

 _ **AN: MARVEL lost the comic rights to Transformers years ago! And seriously, one of these days I'm gonna figure out how you keep getting in here and prevent you from ever using that way again! In the meantime, Security!**_

 _ **Deadpool: WAIT! I want to help! Really! Just let me stay. PLEASE DON'T THROW ME OUT THE STREET DADA!**_

 _ **AN: Okay, now I'm starting to get a little scared. [hits spoiler prevention control and then smirks] Man I'm glad I got to do this to him.**_

 _ **Deadpool: What do you mean? What happened?**_

 _ **AN: Oh nothing, so long as you don't look in the mirror.**_

 _ **Deadpool: Um, I know how that works, and besides, even if I had lizard skin, you couldn't tell. Or did you forget that I wear a full body suit that covers every inch of me?**_

 _ **AN: I know, so it's a good thing that I didn't give you lizard skin.**_

 _ **Deadpool: [looks in a mirror to see he's turned into a puppet] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_

 _ **AN: [half-heartedly...okay not really meaning it at all] I told you not to look in the mirror.**_

 _ **Deadpool: I'm a puppet! What've you done to me you lousy hairy ape?!**_

 _ **Dearka: Hey, real quick, if he bothers you so much, can I toss him in a wood chipper?**_

 _ **Deadpool: HAH! Good luck with that! We have a love-hate relationship going on and there's no way my buddy lyokoMARVELanime is going to let you-WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA! [gets thrown to Dearka]**_

 _ **AN: Knock yourself out. I know your doing it so that you can feel better about when this same thing happened to you.**_

 _ **Dearka: Sweet! [grins evilly at Deadpool who starts crying like a little baby girl]**_

 _ **AN: Hehehehehehehe. Now that the merc with a mouth is dealt with, even though he shouldn't be here in the first place...(I really thought he wouldn't be able to get into these things for this series) Let's roll out to the story!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story**_

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Tragedies before Nightmares**

Traveling through a Space Bridge was not something that one normally had a chance to really enjoy all that much since the trips usually last no more than an instant, but in this case, even with the Space Bridge, it was going to take some time for the _Omega III_ to reach Quintessa, so it gave Cagalli, Athrun, Kira, and all the others the chance to see what it was like traveling inside the Space Bridge for what seemed like the first time in their lives. Looking out one of the windows on the ship, they were all only able to stare in awe for a few minutes, as it seemed like a massive rainbow of colors was spinning around the fast-moving ship while numerous shooting stars streaked past, giving them a very beautiful view of the vortex they were traveling through. While it was indeed a breathtaking sight to witness, it did not distract them from the fact that their destination clearly had the Autobots on the ship worried beyond any reason that they knew of, and after being to so many planets already, the humans on the Cybertronian ship had to wonder what was so different about this world in comparison.

After seeing Bulkhead squirm in his seat for the fifth time in the past several minutes that they had spent inside the vortex, Lunamaria finally had enough and asked, "Would one of you please tell us what the big deal is with this planet we're going to already?!"

"I've gotta agree with Luna on this, guys," Shinn nodded in agreement. "I've never seen any of you so worried about something like this before, so what's changed?"

"Everything," Arcee replied, ominously with a slight hint of fear that Cagalli could only relate to the fear that the female Autobot had when they had first encountered Airachnid on Earth. "This is the homeworld of the Quintessons, the most dangerous foe in all Transformers history."

"Hold on a minute," Kira cut in as he waved his hands to signal for a pause. "I thought that the Quintessons were Cybertronians like you guys, you know, since you said that they were created by one of the Original Thirteen Primes."

"You are not entirely wrong in that assumption, Kira, but that has not been true for a great many years," Optimus sadly nodded. "Some time after the fall of the Original Thirteen, life seemed to carry on peacefully for our world, and we did live in peace alongside the Quintessons, until they decided to rise up and enslave the Transformers, believing themselves to be superior to us all. For a time, they did rule all of Cybertron with an iron grip, but that was until one of my predecessors, the mighty **Rodimus Prime** , led our people in a rebellion against their rule so that they may free us from their tyranny and end their existence."

"So wouldn't that mean there aren't any Quintessons left," Rey asked.

"Not necessarily," Bumblebee replied. "After Rodimus led us to victory in the rebellion against the Quintessons, the ones that remained found a way to escape their justice by fleeing the planet to a distant world far beyond our reach. Sometime afterwards, someone sent us a set of coordinates for a general area and said that they had settled on a world that they now called Quintessa, with a promise to never bother us again."

"And did anyone believe that," Athrun asked.

"Not a chance in the Pitts," Crosshairs replied. "The Quintessons are an evil that some consider far worse than the Decepticons or even the Eradicons, and it's not because of strength, but because they're so crafty and manipulative. They're depicted as the monsters that carriers tell their sparklings about so that the kids don't do something bad."

"In other words, they're the Cybertron version of the boogeyman," Kira clarified.

"Pretty much," Smokescreen nodded. "But unlike Earth's boogeyman, these guys are both real and are able to make even full grown Cybertronians quake in their pedes."

"That may be mostly due to the fact that they represent the very thing that we Autobots stand against," Optimus stated. "The end of free will and a rise of eternal enslavement."

Every human on the ship found their eyes widening at those words, not just because of the words themselves, but because Optimus had spoken them with hatred, loathing, and just an undercurrent of fear. For Optimus Prime to display such emotions towards anyone was a sign in and of itself about how bad these beings were considered to be in the eyes of the Transformers, and it was also enough to lead everyone to spend the rest of the journey in silence until they finally reached their destination. Looking down on Quintessa though, it quickly became clear that this planet would be unlike any place they had been to before.

The planet itself was like any other typical planet in some areas, but it was extremely twisted to the point where it seemed like someone had pulled and squashed parts of it to great extremes. The rings that surround the planet looked as though they were actually extensions of the planet itself, and looking past the rings, the only comparison anyone had to the rest of the strange world was that of a strangely shaped human skull. There did not seem to be a very high chance of any kind of life living on this planet, organic or mechanical, but the coordinates that Optimus had decoded had pointed them here, so they had no choice but to go down and see whether or not this was the place for themselves.

It took a little doing to find anywhere to set the ship down, but eventually, Springer managed to find a reasonable place to land, and the _Omega III_ was soon resting nicely on the planet's surface. Everyone then moved to make all the necessary preparations for greeting the locals, until the ship's sensors suddenly went off to let them know that they would not need to search for long because the locals were already coming to them. Smokescreen was the first one to any station, and so the young Autobot was the one that brought up the image that the ship's external cameras would provide them, allowing them to see numerous animal-like Transformers racing towards the ship, with the most dominant being ones that looked similar to sharks, and a lion 'Bot leading them. Looking at the 'Bots racing towards their ship, it was easy to see that there was not a very likely chance that these Beast Bots were coming to exchange peaceful greetings with them.

"Not really looking like a friendly welcoming party," Bulkhead shivered in apprehension. "Maybe we should just bug out while we still can. I mean, it's not like it'll do too much harm if the 'Cons get one reservoir, right?"

"Considering we have no idea what the partial unearthing of the one on Nebulous could mean for the Decepticon efforts, that's just too great a risk for us to take," Arcee pointed out.

"Well then, we'll just go out there with guns blazing," Crosshairs suggested as he loaded his trusted pistols. "We already know that they'd never willingly talk with us, so why bother trying?"

"Let's at least try a diplomatic approach first, Crosshairs," Cagalli argued. "It's been hundreds of years since the Quintessons left your world, right? Maybe things have changed."

"I wouldn't bet money on that," Bumblebee denied.

"Perhaps, but Cagalli does make a valid point," Optimus pointed out. "We should at least see if it is possible to attempt peace with the Quintessons. We did not come here as conquerors, but as friends hoping to keep the universe safe from a grave threat. Autobots, take only the bare minimum of the regular safety precautions. Gundam pilots, remain aboard your machines at all times in case they do prove to be hostile to us."

Everyone nodded in response to the last Prime's orders, and they were soon heading down the boarding ramp just as the Quintessa locals had come to a stop a short distance from their ship. When the team came into a good view of the locals, many of the 'Bots surrounding their ship either roared or snarled at them in a threatening manner, with the lion Transformer stepping towards the front-most position as he did so, but the team suppressed any urge to ready their weapons in response and let Optimus step forward and attempt to speak with them. "Greetings Quintessons; I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots from Planet Cybertron," Optimus began. "We are here to…"

"We know why you are here, _Cybertronain_ ," the lion Transformer roared. "And we will not let you ravage our home or destroy the last Quintesson like you had the others in the past."

"Excuse me," Bulkhead shouted in indignation. "They did that to themselves when they tried to enslave us all."

"And in your 'great wisdom', you decided to punish the entire Quintesson race for the crimes of the few," the lion roared in accusation. "We always feared that you'd come to finish what you started, and now here's the proof! As leader of Quintessa's defenders, I will not let you go any further. This is your only warning: leave now, or I will tear you all apart."

"Please Quintesson warrior, calm yourself," Optimus pleaded. "We mean you no harm; we are simply here to warn you of a great danger to your world."

"The only danger we can see is all of you," one of the shark-like Transformers snapped. "You wish to end the last Quintesson like you had so many of his brothers and sisters after banishing them to this world!"

"Okay, whoa, time out," Smokescreen cut in. "What do you mean by 'the last Quintesson'? Aren't you all Quintessons?"

"We were created by the Quintessons to defend Quintessa from any who threatened it, such as you, and taught the ways of peace by the only Cybertronian who we ever considered trustworthy and as a friend: Rodimus Prime," the lion Transformer explained.

Everyone's eyes widened in shock at this new knowledge, as they did not expect to hear these Transformers say that Rodimus had taught them about how to live in peace. Did this mean that Rodimus had betrayed Cybertron to join with the Quintessons, or was this 'Bot trying to disgrace the name of Optimus's predecessor? Such questions did not matter for the moment, as the matter at hand was far too important to put to the side so that they could gain insight to another's history. Optimus simply held his hands up in surrender as he once again pleaded, "We are here to warn you of beings who wish to unleash a destructive power born from the very blood of Unicron, the Chaos Bringer, and they will destroy your world to find it. We wish to prevent that, but we can only do that if you allow us to speak with your leader so that we may organize a solid defense against the Decepticons."

"Do you expect us to believe you," the lion demanded. "If you wish to speak with the leader of Quintessa, then you will have to get through all of us first!"

"We don't have time for this," Shinn shouted. "The Decepticons could be here any minute, and you're wasting time accusing us of being the ones who want to harm you! Just let us through, or I will make you move!"

"Shinn," Cagalli shrieked in disapproval for the Grand Destiny pilot's words, but the damage had already been done, as evidenced by the smirk on the lion Transformer's face.

"So you intend to challenge me then," the lion asked. "You intend to have a battle of one warrior to another, with the stakes being either you meet with our leader or you leave and never return?"

Shinn hesitated for a minute, but in the end, it seemed that his answer was clear, as this was likely going to be the only way they would get anywhere with these people. "Yes. I challenge you! You against me in single combat, and if I win, you have to let us see your leader."

"Agreed," the lion Transformer nodded. "But if I win, you and your friends leave us in peace and never disturb us again." When Shinn agreed to the terms, the lion Transformer stepped forward as everyone else made a circle around them, giving the beast Bot enough room to transform into his bipedal mode. The Transformer revealed himself to have his lion head in the center of his chest, while his gold armor was joined with black armor for his shoulders, and white armor for his arms and legs. His head extended up from the top of the lion head, and was revealed to be nearly all black with red optics and a long stretch of the hair from his lion mode's mane stretching back from the top of his head like a ponytail. "Behold your opponent, foolish Cybertronian: I am **Leobreaker**!"

"Nice to make your acquaintance," Shinn drawled. "And for the record, I'm Shinn Asuka, and I'm a Gundam pilot from Planet Earth."

"Never heard of it, but I'll be sure to send you back there in pieces," Leobreaker huffed in reply. "One last thing though, the only weapons you can use are close range ones such as swords or staffs. No blasters."

"Fine with me," Shinn accepted, knowing that he was better when fighting in close range anyways. The two then stared each other down for a tense few minutes, each waiting to see what the other would do while daring one and other to make the first move, until finally, the two made their respective moves to attack. No one was sure who moved first though, as the two were so quick to charge each other that it was almost impossible to really tell, but it was clear that Leobreaker was the one to make the first attempt at attack. The lion Bot threw a hard fist towards the Grand Destiny's head, but Shinn was quick to swerve his machine to the side just enough to avoid the blow and retaliate with a hard punch to Leobreaker's stomach. When Shinn's blow connected, it disoriented Leobreaker long enough for the Grand Destiny to jump into the air and throw out a hard kick that sent Leobreaker back a short distance, and before his mobile suit landed on the ground again, Shinn immediately gunned the thrusters to send the Grand Destiny forward for another frontal attack.

Leobreaker was ready for Shinn though, and immediately caught the offending mobile suit in one hand, before flipping the Grand Destiny over his shoulder like a judo fighter. Leobreaker then reeled back a fist to punch right through the Grand Destiny's torso, but Shinn managed to use his mobile suit's thrusters to blast out of the way just before the lion Bot's fist could connect, leaving Leobreaker to strike nothing but the ground that the mobile suit was previously lying on top of. Shinn was able to get his Gundam back on its feet quickly enough, but he soon found himself on the defensive when Leobreaker charged in with a rapid, unrelenting barrage of attacks that Shinn struggled keeping up with just to block said offensive. Eventually though, Shinn was able to spot an opening to take advantage of, and immediately delivered an open-palm strike to Leobreaker's lion-head chest that pushed the lion Bot back enough to allow Shinn some breathing room and a brief chance to draw the Grand Destiny's Ascalon Beam Sword.

Shinn quickly charged in with his machine's powerful energy blade at the ready, but he was not expecting Leobreaker to suddenly lash out and strike him from a distance, throwing Shinn back down to the ground. Shinn could only glance at his opponent for a moment before Leobreaker knocked his Beam Sword from his hand with a long, pointed whip that was clearly Leobreaker's tail while he was in beast mode. Leobreaker smirked at the sight of his opponent being disarmed and quickly charged to unleash another strike with his tail whip, but he was soon forced to pause when Shinn raised the Grand Destiny's left arm in defense and allowed the weapon to wrap around said appendage, giving the Gundam pilot a chance to pull Leobreaker's weapon from his grasp, disarming Leobreaker just as the lion Bot had done to him a minute ago. This did not seem to deter Leobreaker for a minute though, as he continued his charge while engaging a set of three claws from both of his hands, and as soon as he was within range, he raced past Shinn with a furious barrage of slashes from said claws at the very same speed he was using to attack the young pilot just mere moments ago.

Seeing the man she loved being torn apart like this caused Lunamaria to start moving towards him until Crosshairs raised an arm in front of her to keep her from going anywhere. "Move Crosshairs," Lunamaria shouted at her guardian. "I can't just sit here when Shinn needs my help!"

"You must, Lunamaria," Optimus stated. "Shinn has given us a chance to resolve our dilemma without leading us to great bloodshed, even if he does not realize it, and given that we do not fully understand the customs of this planet, I fear that interfering with this battle would be disastrous to both us and Shinn."

"But I can't just," Lunamaria cried out in protest, and Optimus did not need to see her face to know that tears were quickly beginning to form in her eyes.

"I don't like it anymore than you do, Luna, but we don't have a choice in the matter," Kira assured his teammate. "Don't worry. Shinn's more than capable of handling himself in any situation that he gets into. If anyone can get through this, it's him. I should know since he's the only one who's ever beaten me in a battle."

Lunamaria could not say anything in response to Kira's words since she knew he was right, no matter how much she wanted to dispute such things, and she looked back to where Shinn was still being torn into by Leobreaker as she whispered, "Shinn, you'd better get out of this alive."

From where he was, Shinn could just faintly hear Lunamaria's pleas for his safety, and he knew that he had to do something before Leobreaker tore out what fight was left in him, but with how fast the lion Bot's attacks were coming at him and given how much damage those claws were dealing, Shinn was having a hard time thinking of anything. Thankfully, that tactical thinking block quickly disappeared when he did finally think of something, and then let Leobreaker continue his assault until the Grand Destiny was knocked onto his back. "Pitiful effort, Shinn Asuka of Earth," Leobreaker roared as he leapt forward to deliver the final blow. "Now you'll see the might of a true warrior!"

Shinn just smirked in response as he had the Grand Destiny reach back and quickly pull out one of its Anti-Ship Swords with a swift motion that allowed him to send up a dust cloud that blinded Leobreaker for a minute. When the dust cleared, Leobreaker was stunned to see that his opponent had disappeared, and he immediately began looking all around to figure out where Shinn had gone. He did not locate the Gundam until a shadow suddenly fell over him that prompted him to look up and see the Grand Destiny falling towards him from above with both of its Anti-Ship swords drawn and ready. Leobreaker immediately leapt into the air so that he could meet his opponent half-way through his descent, but he did so without realizing that Shinn held a strong advantage while in the air, a fact that Leobreaker soon discovered in very little time at all.

Shinn was quick to parry Leobreaker's claws with one of his Anti-Ship swords, and then unleashed a barrage of sword attacks on Leobreaker, leading the lion Bot to find himself on the receiving end of a barrage he could not keep up with. Leobreaker tried to right himself when a pause in Shinn's attacks finally came, but it did him little good, as that pause was merely the result of Shinn blasting around to be behind Leobreaker so that he could attack from another angle. Shinn continued this pattern over and over, never once letting Leobreaker get too close to the ground, until he finally unleashed a blow from his blades that sent Leobreaker crashing down to the surface bellow, and then landed above said lion Transformer with his swords at Leobreaker's throat.

Leobreaker just stared up at his opponent in awe, having never been bested in such a battle before, until he finally closed his optics a little and stated, "It seems that you have won this battle, so go ahead and do it. Finish me off."

The air immediately grew tense, as everyone waited for Shinn to make his final move, and they were all quickly forced to watch with baited breath as the Grand Destiny raised its swords and then brought them down in a powerful swing, only for them to release a loud clang when the blades struck the ground on either side of the mobile suit, much to Leobreaker's shock and the Autobot and Gundam teams' relief. "I don't understand," Leobreaker protested. "You would have defeated me. Why didn't you finish it?"

"This fight is already over," Shinn stated in finality. "Killing you wouldn't make any difference beyond letting your people think that we're the monsters you've depicted us to be. Besides, you fought hard and with honor, so how can I honestly end your life after that?"

Leobreaker stared at the Grand Destiny for a minute until he finally let out a chuckle and said, "Truly you are a great warrior, Shinn Asuka, and this Grand Destiny you pilot is a powerful machine that shows your strength in a great many ways. It's been a long time since I've faced a challenge like that."

"Well, maybe someday we can have a rematch," Shinn suggested. "But right now, we've got other things to deal with."

Leobreaker nodded and looked to the other members of Shinn's team as he said, "As agreed, I will lead Shinn Asuka to our world's leader, but I still cannot lead any Cybertronians there. It is against our laws to allow any of your world to so much as come near his temple."

"You can't be serious," Cagalli protested. "You said you would lead us _all_ to see your leader, and now you're going back on your word?!"

"I am sorry, but I simply can't do what is not…" Leobreaker started to say, but he soon paused and looked off into space for a minute, almost as though something else had caught his attention. Eventually though, Leobreaker looked back to the group's red and blue leader and asked, "You said you were a Prime, correct?"

"Yes," Optimus nodded in reply.

Leobreaker then looked between the six Gundams and Optimus before he stated, "Our leader has granted me his blessing to lead you and the six Earthlings that you have come here with to a meeting with him, but he insists that the others remain here with your ship."

The group was about to protest against this, until Optimus said, "I accept your terms."

"Optimus, this isn't a good idea," Arcee protested. "There's no telling what could happen to you and the Gundam Team if you go alone."

"I understand that, Arcee, but we and the Quintessons are each on unsteady ground with one another. I believe that it would be best for us to tread carefully and not try to push our luck too much if we are to complete our mission," Optimus argued, his tone indicating that he did not like it anymore than Arcee did, but he still knew that it was necessary for their mission's success.

The others knew that there was no chance of arguing with Optimus when he was standing so firmly on the matter, and so they could nothing more than nod in acceptance of Optimus's decision before the Last Prime turned to Leobreaker to say that they were ready to go. Leobreaker nodded in reply and transformed back into his beast mode, only pausing to let the Bots he identified as the **Sharkticons** know a few final orders in regards to their guests before he finally began leading the way to the temple where the leader of Quintessa was waiting for them. As Optimus and the six humans followed behind the lion Bot in their respective alt modes, they could feel their anxiety growing at what they may find when they finally met the leader of this world, but they had to wonder if that concern was due to something else as well.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Galvatron was not entirely pleased with the way things were going at the moment. Not only had they continuously failed in their efforts to locate the final world with a Dark Energon reservoir, but Cyclonus's team was unable to completely unearth the one on Nebulous. Granted simply unleashing any part of the reservoir was more than enough to increase Unicron's power, but it was only by a very small amount that was not to the Chaos Bringer's liking. Still, the one thing that they could be thankful for was the fact that they only needed to unleash one last reservoir fully in order to restore the Chaos Bringer's full might, and then things would quickly begin to descend into darkness for Prime, the Autobots, and their little human pets. Unfortunately, since they had no idea where the last reservoir was, that was quickly proving to be a problem, as the Autobots would no doubt have located it any day now, since they had Optimus decoding the necessary coordinates, and Galvatron was well aware of Optimus's skills from the time he spent as Orion Pax, but at the moment, the Decepticon warlord had other matters to deal with.

Said matters made themselves known when he finally stomped into the chamber where Cyclops was inflicting Predaking with a number of very intense shocks that even the mighty leader of the Predacons could not withstand for very long. It was no secret that Cyclops was not only the one in charge of disciplining the Predacons before Predaking revealed the ability to gain sentience, but he was also very displeased at the idea that the beasts could actually seem to think for themselves, and as such Cyclops continued to refer to the Predacons as though they were mere beasts instead of sentient life forms like the others now had, leading him to continue to discipline the beasts whenever they failed a mission, or sometimes even just to blow off some steam. This most recent round of discipline was due to their loss on Nebulous, which Cyclops immediately blamed the Predacons for, and being the leader of his brethren, Predaking was quick to take on all the punishment that Cyclops intended to deal out to his kind. When it eventually seemed to become too much though, Scourge had quickly informed Galvatron of what was happening, and the warlord immediately made his way to the chamber to see what Cyclops was doing for himself.

Galvatron stood in the doorway to the chamber for a few more minutes to watch, as Cyclops ceased his electric assault on Predaking, and watched as the Predacon leader fell to his knees. "You are pathetic, animal," Cyclops sneered. "You had the chance to end your enemies once and for all, and yet you and your 'brethren' allowed the Autobots the chance to gain the upper hand."

"It was…my decision…and belief that…the mission had been…completed," Predaking gasped in weariness. "Our assignment…was to unearth…the reservoir, and…we did just that."

"SILENCE," Cyclops shouted as he dealt another burst of electricity through Predaking, drawing a scream of agony from the Predacon this time. "You and your kind are nothing but animals! You don't get to think like that! Our mission is to complete unleash the reservoirs!"

"And if…we had…we would have…been destroyed with the…planet," Predaking continued to argue.

Cyclops snarled again before dealing another shock to Predaking, increasing Predaking's agony when he did. "I said that you cannot speak, animal," Cyclops snarled again. "Your only job is to ensure we win and succeed, not decide what determines success."

"You dare," Scourge started to snarl, but he quickly suppressed his need to defend his leader's honor when Predaking threw him a warning look that said to stay where he was, much to Scourge's distain.

"That is quite enough, Cyclops," Galvatron snarled, having finally seen enough, drawing everyone's attention to where he was still standing in the doorway. "Predaking was correct in his decision, and since he was there while we were not, we can only respect his decision."

"But Lord Galvatron, it should not even be able to make such decisions at all," Cyclops protested. "This anomaly in the animals must be dealt with, and I am simply doing just that."

"We are not mere animals," Scourge roared, and this time he charged Cyclops, despite any warning looks he was sent. Cyclops was quick to evade Scourge's enraged attacks, but still suffered a few blows here and there until he finally subdued the angered Predacon with a swift combination of blows to Scourge's stomach and head.

"I see no evidence that says otherwise," Cyclops hissed as he held Scourge down with the Predacon's own battle axe.

"Cyclops," Galvatron snapped, getting the one-eyed Decepticon commander to stand down from his actions. Galvatron then stomped forward and quietly hissed to Cyclops, "I will not have you jeopardizing any hopes we have of keeping Predaking and his brethren in favor of us until it is no longer necessary, so I suggest you at least _attempt_ to control your reactions towards them."

"…Yes, Lord Galvatron," Cyclops hissed in begrudging reply.

Before any sense of conversation could continue, Le Creuset suddenly walked into the room along with Soundwave, and the masked man had to glance around the room before he eventually asked, "Is this a bad time, Lord Galvatron?"

"Not at all," Galvatron replied with a look to the others that dared them to say otherwise. When they did not, he brought his attention back to the Decepticons' eyes and ears and his human partner as he asked, "Why are you both here?"

"Soundwave has discovered something that I think you will find very intriguing," Le Creuset replied.

Looking to Soundwave, Galvatron watched as the silent Decepticon changed the image of his face-screen to display a set of planetary coordinates that were accompanied by another set of trackers that Galvatron recognized easily. "Prime is in space with some of his Autobots," Galvatron exclaimed in shock. His shock soon turned to a demonic grin as he stated, "That means that he has located the final colony world for us, and has now left Cybertron and Earth without his protection."

"It would appear so," Le Creuset nodded. "And if Soundwave's readings are accurate, a number of the Gundam pilots that defend Earth are also with him, including Kira Yamato."

"This is an opportunity that we cannot afford to let slip past," Galvatron stated. "Soundwave, Cyclops, gather as many of our forces as you can and lead an attack on this world at once. Let nothing stand in your way from unleashing the Dark Energon reservoir."

"At once, my lord," Cyclops said with a bow that Soundwave quickly mirrored.

"Lord Galvatron, what do you need of us," Predaking inquired as he indicated himself and the other Predacons.

"For the moment, I need you and your brethren to accompany Le Creuset and myself on another assignment, Predaking, once you are patched up enough to return to regular duty that is," Galvatron stated. "We have another matter to deal with."

Predaking could not explain why, but there was just something about what Galvatron said that gave him chills, and the look that the Decepticon leader and Le Creuset had on their faces did nothing to assuage that feeling in the least. Still, he knew it would not bode well for him to disobey Galvatron's commands, so he simply nodded in understanding and gestured for his brethren to follow him. As the Predacons left and the other two Decepticons left though, they all missed Galvatron saying, "It seems that the end game of Phase One is nearly upon us."

"Yes it is," Le Creuset smirked. "And it will only be a matter of time until Kira Yamato and Optimus Prime realize that they have been looking in all but the closest places for their true greatest enemy in this conflict."

The two then chuckled with twisted joy at this statement, neither of them ever realizing that Quicksilver was listening in from just outside the door the entire time, or that he had slipped away before either of them had noticed so that the fast-moving seeker could let his master know of what he had just heard. "Master Starscream," Quicksilver whispered in a rush once he was within the safety of his master's quarters. "Galvatron and the human are preparing to make their final move, and from the sound of what I had just heard, we have not been told the entirety of their plans."

"Just as I thought," Starscream hummed in reply. He then looked to all those who were more loyal to him than Galvatron for one reason or another, which in addition to Quicksilver consisted of Knockout, Banshee, Roadkill, and Roadkill's partner Roadhog, who had the appearance of a dark purple and dark green-light blue version of Onslaught, and smirked as he stated, "At long last, our time to restore the Decepticons to their true glory is approaching. We will let _Lord_ Galvatron carry on with his plans as he likes, until he has finally lowered his guard enough to never expect our sudden strike, at which point, we will end that imposter and the human abomination that he allies himself with once and for all! All hail the true Decepticons!"

"All hail the true Decepticons! All hail Starscream," Starscream's followers shouted in unison, and while their cries went unheard to anyone else in the base, it was still a clear warning that Starscream's betrayal of Galvatron was now very close at hand.

* * *

 **Location: Quintessa Temple**

After what seemed like hours, the team eventually arrived at a massive temple that they all immediately realized was where Leobreaker's leader was likely waiting for them, and they all reassumed their bipedal modes before entering the temple. Leobreaker wanted the pilots to leave their machines outside, but when Kira insisted that he and his friends would only disembark from their Gundams once they were before the leader of Quintessa, Leobreaker just shrugged in acceptance, knowing that they did not have time to argue the point unless they wanted to upset the Quintessa leader by keeping him waiting for too long. As they walked down the hallways, Kira thought that now was as good a time as any to ask Leobreaker a few questions that had been bothering them all for some time now.

"Uh Leobreaker," Kira called out to get the lion Transformer's attention. "You said earlier that Rodimus Prime had taught you all how to live in peace, and helped you all to make this world your home."

"That is correct," Leobreaker confirmed. "He's the only Cybertronian that we've ever considered to be a trustworthy friend."

"Did you know him," Kira asked.

Leobreaker looked down a little in slight sadness before he finally answered, "I only knew him for a short time. He had passed on by the time I had completed my training as the leader of Quintessa's defenders."

Kira nodded in understanding and apologized for bringing up what were likely sad memories, but Leobreaker just waved it off saying that Kira did not know so it was no problem. Kira then went on to point out, "You never did tell us what your leader's name is, you know. Is it a problem for you to talk about it or something?"

Leobreaker then froze in his tracks before he threw a surprised look at Kira and slapped his forehead as he muttered, "How could I forget something so important?" The lion Transformer then looked to the group as he replied, "There is no problem in telling you our leader's name; I just had not realized I neglected to tell you it until now. His name is **Alpha Q**."

Everyone nodded in recognition of this new information and then pressed onward into the temple after Leobreaker. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally came into a large, circular room with a very exquisite design that made it seem like the room was covered in cables and glowing orbs, while in the center was a lone figure with a squid like body and a covering over his head that looked like an animal's mouth. Inside the covering, everyone could see what appeared to be a strange, red face with green eyes, while the arms of the figure appeared to be comprised of four tentacles with three, pointed fingers on each hand. Seeing that this was likely who they were here to meet, the Gundam pilots climbed out of their machines and began to approach until Leobreaker signaled them to stop in their tracks, stating that they were close enough for Alpha Q.

"Alpha Q, may I present Optimus Prime and the Earthlings that had accompanied him," Leobreaker announced to the squid-like being. The six humans then took the opportunity to introduce themselves, and once all introductions were completed, silence seemed to permeate the room until Alpha Q finally spoke.

"One of these beings is the one who bested you in combat, Leobreaker," the Quintesson roared in angered disbelief, leading the six humans to feel a bit offended. The feeling of being insulted quickly became replaced with shock when Alpha Q's face suddenly spun around to a more feminine one while he said in a high-pitched voice, "Oh they look so small! It is almost surprising that they could have such power," Alpha Q's face then spun around again to a green face as he commented in a deep voice, "It does not hide the fact that one of them did indeed best our finest warrior, but it still begs the question as to how it happened in the first place."

"If you don't mind, I think we'd all like to dispense with the games," Kira then interrupted.

"WHAT," the Quintesson roared through all three voices.

"We're here to see Alpha Q, not a circus performance," Kira elaborated.

"Weren't you listening, boy? I AM ALPHA Q," the Quintesson roared in all three voices again while cycling through all three faces at once.

Kira and the others just stared in mild shock at how quickly their host had lost his temper due to Kira's words, but Kira quickly gave them something else to be shocked about when he said, "Well you'll have to forgive me if I don't believe someone who hides behind a bunch of silly masks."

That caught everyone off guard, with Leobreaker wondering aloud how Kira knew about such a thing, but Alpha Q eventually brought their attention back to him when his faces spun into a single blue mask with grey horns, while he spoke in an elderly, sage-like voice, "You are much more impressive than I originally believed, young human, but I sense that there is more to you than any of your allies, or even you realize." Kira was about to question Alpha Q's meaning behind this, but before he could, Alpha Q went on to say, "You are the one…the human boy known as Kira Yamato that we were once told of."

Kira's eyes instantly widened in shock when he heard this and he asked, "What do you mean by that? How could you know about me when I've never even heard of your people until just today?"

"I know much, Kira Yamato," Alpha Q replied. "I was gifted with the ability to see things that are yet to come, an ability that Rodimus Prime bestowed upon myself and my kind to ensure our continued survival. Through this ability, we have seen many things, including our imminent destruction, but one vision stood out to me: a vision of a young human being that would become something far greater for the sake of all that he cares about and the universe, and who would be instrumental in defeating the great darkness that now threatens this universe."

"Then you are aware of Galvatron's threat," Optimus asked.

"I am," Alpha Q confirmed. "I know all about Galvatron, the one you call Le Creuset, and the plans that they have, as well as who is pulling their strings."

"And you think that the person who will help make the biggest difference is me," Kira asked.

"I don't think you are, young Kira; I know you are," Alpha Q corrected. "But you cannot do anything without understanding all that has happened." The last Quintesson then edged forward a little and reached out a tentacle to Kira as he said, "If you are to succeed in the journey you are on, then I believe it will help you to understand our history."

Optimus felt he could no longer stand by idly, and immediately protested, "I cannot allow you to bring any harm to Kira."

"I mean him no harm, Optimus Prime," Alpha Q insisted. "I only wish to share my people's knowledge with him, but only if he wishes to have it."

Optimus and the others looked to Kira as he debated on whether or not he should accept what Alpha Q was offering. On one hand, the Autobots had all insisted that the Quintessons were evil beings that were extremely manipulative and could not be trusted, but so far, they had not heard anything about the Quintessons' side of the story, and from what Leobreaker said, it was rather clear that there was something about the Cybertronians' history with Alpha Q's people that Optimus and his friends were not aware of, so what was the harm in learning what was left out? Plus, if Alpha Q was right in saying that Kira was going to play a large part in helping the universe from Galvatron and Le Creuset's threat, and there was a chance that Alpha Q's information could help, then what choice did they have other than to listen to what he had to say.

His decision now clear, Kira looked towards Alpha Q and said, "Tell me everything that you can."

Alpha Q nodded and placed the hand of his extended tentacle against Kira's body, leading a bright glow to erupt from the point where they had made contact with each other. Everyone instantly became worried, but Leobreaker was quick to assure them that there was no need to fear for Kira's wellbeing. After looking on seeing that neither of the two were speaking to each other for a minute, Cagalli had to ask, "What exactly is he doing?"

"He is telling your friend of our history, telepathically. It is a much faster method than just telling him aloud," Leobreaker explained.

"Would it be alright if we heard all this as well," Athrun asked, wanting to make sure that Kira really was alright.

Leobreaker was about to say no, until he looked to Alpha Q for a minute and stated, "Alpha Q says that he will show you as well at Kira's request. Just place your hands on Kira's shoulders, or on the shoulder of one who is already connected to Kira."

The five humans all nodded in understanding, and then walked up to do as Leobreaker said, with Athrun and Cagalli both placing their hands on either one of Kira's shoulders, while the others placed their hands on the one of the two's. A minute later, a bright light engulfed each of their vision, while the sounds of someone screaming reached their ears, until everything suddenly went black.

* * *

As soon as he regained consciousness, it was clear that Shinn was the last of his group to wake up, because he could see them all looking down at him in concern, but what he found more worrying was the fact that they were apparently floating in space, a fact that he immediately raised with the others. He quickly calmed down when Kira assured him that what they were seeing was just an illusion that Alpha Q was using to tell them his story, and after taking another glance around, everyone was quick to see Planet Cybertron just a short distance away from them. "So this is all stuff from Alpha Q's memory," Shinn asked.

 **"No,"** Alpha Q's voice echoed from all around them. **"This is the collective memories of all Quintessons who survived to travel to Quintessa."**

"Wait, Alpha Q, where are you," Cagalli called out.

 **"I am right here with you, but you cannot see us because it is not necessary for you to see me at this time,"** the last Quintesson explained. **"Now watch closely as I recount the Quintessons' tale."**

The six humans looked back towards Cybertron and were all instantly crying out in shock when the planet suddenly seemed to race towards them, but they immediately relaxed when they remembered that what they were seeing was just a vision of the past that Alpha Q was showing them. This was further enforced when they saw Cybertron in a state that was undoubtedly from before the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, and they were all soon surprised to see Cybertronians and Quintessons talking with each other and exchanging greetings like the best of friends. In fact, a number of both alien races were also seen working together side-by-side in various different businesses.

 **"Before the dark times, we lived in a peaceful coexistence with the Cybertronians,"** Alpha Q explained. **"Though we were something of a lower caste than they were, we did not mind, as we were doing things that we enjoyed, whether it be working as merchants or additional support for work crews in jobs that the Cybertronians could not complete on their own. It was peaceful for us all, and it seemed that we would live in such peaceful coexistence forever, but no good thing lasts forever."**

The next thing that any of them saw were a number of Quintessons gathering together in what was clearly a secret meeting, while one of the ones that looked similar to Alpha Q, except for the masks that he wore, stood before them all, clearly indicating that he was the leader. _"The time of the Transformers is at an end,"_ the meeting leader stated heatedly. _"We have been forced to suffer under their reign as mere tools and slaves! Were we created by the great Quintus Prime to be servants to others?"_

 _"NO,"_ many of the other Quintessons roared in defiance.

 _"Is this not our world as well, and are we not clearly the more capable beings than the Transformers,"_ the leader than asked.

 _"YES,"_ the crowd chanted in reply again.

 _"Then I say we prove that once and for all, by showing them who the real masters are, and seizing this world for its rightful masters: the Quintessons,"_ the leader then concluded, and he was quickly met with a roar of agreement from most of the crowd, but not everyone seemed to follow this popular viewpoint.

 _"Wait a nanocycle,"_ one Quintesson shouted as he ran up onto the stage. _"The Transformers have done nothing to deserve such attitudes from us! Why should we try to treat them as though we are superior to them? More to the point, what will taking this action prove other than that we are barbarians?"_

This new Quintesson's words seemed to resonate with some of his fellow brothers and sisters, but the first was quick to deny such thoughts as he stated, _"We are nothing but tools, servants, and jokes to them! They are the barbarians here, and we shall be doing them a favor by seizing control of them all!"_

The majority of the crowd seemed to be in favor of the first Quintesson's views, if the loud cheering that erupted in response to his words was anything to go by, but the fact that any Quintessons were standing against the idea of conquering Cybertron at all was surprising to the six humans. "So not all of the Quintessons wanted to take over," Rey gasped.

 **"No,"** Alpha Q replied. **"Though many of us did, a large number were not truly committed to the idea. They just went along with it because others seemed to think it would benefit our kind in the long run. Even so, despite how little true commitment there was to this cause or how against the idea some of us were, it did nothing to stop the war between us and the Transformers from breaking out."**

What the group saw next horrified them, as time seemed to speed up until the image of Cybertron was consumed in flames and the sounds of battle and weapons fire echoing across the metallic world. The six were not all that surprised by how terrible things had become, having seen how much the Autobots and Decepticons' war had destroyed the planet, but they were really more surprised that the Quintessons were able to put up such a strong fight against the Transformers, given their obvious limitations even against these ancient Cybertronians. Soon the reasons became clear when they saw a number of Transformers on the battlefield that were fighting for the Quintessons, but they did not move like the other Transformers, but instead, they moved as though they were in a trance.

 **"As the fighting raged on, some of our kind discovered how to reprogram the Transformers' processors so that they would willingly follow our commands and fight for us,"** Alpha Q continued to explain.

"So you basically brainwashed them," Athrun spat as though the concept left a bad taste in his mouth, though considering that it seemed similar to the caste system that Sentinel had once tried to reinstate, no one could blame him for thinking that way.

 **"In a more simple sense, yes, but like many of my brothers and sisters, I take no pride in the matter,"** Alpha Q insisted. **"Eventually, the fighting reached a point where it seemed as though neither side would win without completely destroying one another, an outcome that no one was too fond of."**

"You're not the only one who doesn't like that idea," Cagalli murmured, having instantly thought of the First Bloody Valentine War when she heard Alpha Q mention that particular bit of information.

 **"Many of us had all but given up hope for a peaceful resolution, until one day, a very brave Transformer rose up above the ashes and fires to restore that hope to both his own kind and ours. A Transformer that you have only just learned about from Optimus Prime, one of his many successors."**

Everyone had a strong idea of who Alpha Q was referring to, and that thought was quickly confirmed when they looked down and saw a red, rocket-powered, Cybertronian truck cab with golden flames racing across the battlefield until he transformed into red Bot with gold flames on his chest and lower legs, a red helmet, a silver face with blue optics, and orange colored hands and upper legs. The Transformer then pulled out an energy flag that displayed an image very similar to the Autobot logo within a set of orange and gold flames, and let the banner wave in the wind as he shouted, _"This battle is not one that any of us desire my brothers and sisters. Neither we nor the Quintessons truly wish to dominate each other, so I say we end this pointless bloodshed. We can work together to rebuild the bridges between us that have been burned by the greedy desires of a select few, and I swear by the spark of Primus, and the powers that had chosen me as the newest Prime, we shall reclaim the peace that we once held!"_

"Rodimus Prime," the six humans gasped in awe.

 **"Yes. Rodimus's courage, spirit, and strength in his beliefs were what finally brought the war to an end, but sadly, the peace that he spoke of would not be achieved,"** Alpha Q stated as the image changed to allow everyone to see what had happened as the Quintesson told the tale. **"Though he tried his best to assure his fellow Transformers that the entire Quintesson race should not be blamed for the actions of a few, Rodimus could not quell the anger and distrust that had now grown between our two peoples. They called out for our execution and the end of all Quintessons, saying that we were a mistake that should never have been made, that we were monsters who would assume control of them the minute they let their guard down, and that Quintus Prime should never have created us in the first place. Eventually, Rodimus managed to find a compromise that would allow us all to live in peace, though not in the way he had originally wished. All surviving Quintessons who bore no ill-will towards Cybertronians would be given the chance to leave Cybertron and find a world of our own until the day that the lost trust could be rebuilt."**

"So then…you're just like the Coordinators," Kira gasped, and judging by the expressions on each of his friends' faces, it was clear that they had made the same connection that he had too.

 **"When all preparations were complete, we boarded the ship and said one last goodbye to the world we had a hand in destroying, but shortly after traveling through the Space Bridge, we discovered that we were not the only ones on the ship,"** Alpha Q explained, and everyone was quick to gasp in shock when they saw Rodimus was on the ship with the other Quintessons. **"Having felt great shame from his people's reactions, Rodimus elected to travel with us in an effort to prove that we could still be trusted, saying that he would see to it that we would one day rejoin our lost family on Cybertron even if it cost him his very spark."**

"But you never did come back, did you," Cagalli asked.

 **"No, but not because we did not wish to; it was because we were unable to,"** Alpha Q clarified. **"We do not know why, but sometime after settling on the planet that we now stand upon, we found ourselves unable to reach Cybertron and without any means of activating a Space Bridge. In that moment, it became clear to us that the Cybertronians had abandoned us and decided that we should be left to rot in some small, distant corner of the cosmos. We did not let that deter us though, for Rodimus would not let us. He continued to insist that the day would come that we would return to Cybertron as friends to all who inhabited the world, but after all that had now happened, many of us felt that it would be better to remain here on Quintessa."**

 **"Rodimus respected our wishes, and then began helping us to make a new life here. He helped us to create our followers, the Sharkticons and Beast Bots, and he trained each of them in the arts of combat, making sure that they understood it was only to be used in both their own defense and the defense of their world, and his greatest student turned out to be the warrior that you have come to know as Leobreaker. Eventually though, my fellow Quintessons began to die out, since this planet did not have enough energon to sustain us all at the time, until finally, only I remained. Rodimus assured me that all would be well, as the energon reserves of the planet were growing stronger and more numerous by the day, but sadly, it did not come soon enough for poor Rodimus."**

The group then gasped in shock when they saw Leobreaker, Alpha Q, and all the other residents of Quintessa gathered around a large bed that a now very old and weak Rodimus lay upon, and judging by the atmosphere, it was no mystery as to what was happening. _"Rodimus please don't go,"_ the young Leobreaker pleaded, his voice showing just how much more inexperienced he was in comparison to the Leobreaker that they had just met is. _"We need you! You can't die!"_

 _"Do not grieve,"_ Rodimus whispered softly. _"Soon I shall be one…with the AllSpark…and the Matrix."_

 _"Please old friend! Are you sure there's nothing we can do,"_ Past Alpha Q asked in his high-pitched, voice of concern.

 _"No my old friend, but do not…lose hope,"_ Rodimus stated. _"The day will come…when another finds this world…and reignites the light…that the universe lost…when we were separated from…our home. Never forget that…you are…of Cybertron, Alpha Q…Never forget."_

Past Alpha Q and the others in that point of time just looked on in sad silence as the light left Rodimus's optics while his armor turned to a dull grey and his body finally fell limp, signaling that the universe had just lost someone who had once been a great hero. Even though this event happened years ago, Kira, Cagalli, Shinn, Athrun, Rey, and Lunamaria found themselves crying almost as hard as the Quintessa locals of the past were in the vision at seeing the end of Rodimus Prime with their own eyes.

 **"We never did forget our friend's final wish, but I fear that we failed to grant it to him, because our hatred and resentment towards Cybertron was eventually passed on to our new followers, and the results are what you now see around you,"** Alpha Q finally concluded, and with his tale now finished, a bright light quickly engulfed the group, blinding them until they blacked out once again.

* * *

When they regained the ability to see once again, the six humans looked up at Alpha Q with a look of sadness and sympathy. This being was not only the last of his kind, but had also suffered a great deal in his long life, including the loss of a life-long friend that had stood by him and his people for so many years. Despite this, Alpha Q took their sad looks to be something of an offense, and he immediately rotated to his angered persona and demanded, "Why are you looking at me like that? I do not want your pity, humans!"

"It's not exactly pity," Athrun replied. "It's more like recognition, because in a way, you're a lot like we are."

"What do you mean by that," Alpha Q's concern persona asked in honest confusion.

"A few years ago, our world was dealing with something very similar to what you went through," Cagalli explained. "Humanity had been divided into Naturals and Coordinators; Naturals being normal humans, and Coordinators being humans that had their genes altered at birth and were thus able to do a lot of incredible things and take a lot more than the average person could. Not everyone was able to accept the Coordinators though, as they considered them to be abominations to our world, and eventually, the tensions rose to the point that most Coordinators were forced to live in secrecy among Naturals or in the space colonies that made up the nation of the PLANTs. Those tensions then rose to the point that a war broke out due to the dispute between Naturals and Coordinators, a war that would only end once one side had completely wiped out the other, and if it weren't for Optimus, Kira, and the rest of us and the other Autobots, we probably wouldn't have a planet at all right now."

"But the Coordinators were still able to see the Earth from these colonies, correct," the cunning personality argued. "We have never been able to see Cybertron as so much as a faint star!"

"And a lot of Coordinators had never even been to Earth unless they were soldiers in the war or were born on the planet," Kira revealed. "Take Athrun for example: he was born in space, grew up in the PLANTs, and he never even set foot on Earth until his duties as a soldier brought him there."

Alpha Q shifted to his wise persona once again and asked, "And you say that the Autobots helped save you?"

"Despite falling into a war with the Decepticons, a great deal has changed on Cybertron since your kind had left," Optimus stated as he stepped into the conversation. "We are no longer the destructive race that we once were, and all those who side with the Autobots will always stand for freedom of all sentient beings while protecting the universe from whatever evil we can."

"Alpha Q," Kira then called out, getting the Quintesson's attention again. "I know that you don't trust the Cybertronians like you once did, but things are different now. You have a chance to return to Cybertron and mend the bridges that those terrible few of your ancestors and fellow Quintessons had burned, and while it may take time, the end result will be more than worth it, because you will be able to complete the goal that Rodimus had fought so hard for."

Alpha Q stared at Kira for a few minutes in silence. This young man from Earth did tell a great truth that he could not deny, but the fact that he seemed to be so wise was truly shocking for someone who was clearly very young, even by Earth standards. Alpha Q was not sure what it was, but it was clear to him that Kira had experienced a great deal in his short life, as that was the only explanation as to how he could be so certain and speak so wisely. Then again, the boy was obviously friends with Optimus Prime, so that could also have something to do with it, but even if Kira was speaking in a way that Optimus probably would have, Alpha Q could see quite clearly that the words and beliefs were all truly those of Kira's. Alpha Q was about to comment on this matter when an explosion suddenly rang out through the temple that the whole room shook under.

"What was that," Leobreaker shouted.

 _"Optimus, come in,"_ Springer shouted over her comm. link in distress.

"Go ahead Springer," Optimus replied.

 _"Sir, whatever you're doing over there, you need to hurry and finish it. The Decepticons are here!"_

"How many of them," Cagalli asked the triple-changer.

 _"It would be easier to tell you how many aren't here,"_ Springer replied after a minute, and the concern that everyone had already been feeling instantly shot up through the roof.

Knowing what they had to do, the group immediately turned and raced out of the chamber so that they could reach their allies before it was too late, but before he left, Kira paused for a minute to throw one last look at Alpha Q, almost as though he were asking the Quintesson to trust that he and the Autobots would help them. Alpha Q could somehow sense this, and he immediately nodded, "Go on. Your friends and allies need you. Please do what you can for our home and our people."

"We won't let you down," Kira nodded in thanks, and he then climbed aboard the Strike Freedom and raced after his friends who were already about half-way out of the temple.

Each one of Alpha Q's personas smiled at the young boy as they all commented as one, "We know you won't…Kira."

* * *

No one was sure how it had happened. One moment everyone was just sitting around outside the _Omega III_ in peaceful silence, and the next minute they were all scattering for cover as nearly the entire Decepticon army rained down all forms of attacks on them. Everyone from the Combaticons, to the Seeker Siblings, to Cyclops's team, and to every other Decepticon in between was attacking the planet with the only absentees being Galvatron, Le Creuset, and the Predacons. Arcee was not complaining about who was absent though as she fired on the enemies that were present, but it was a small comfort given that she was currently fighting off nearly the entire Decepticon army with only five other Autobots and the warriors of Quintessa on her side.

That soon changed when the Decepticons were eventually joined by some of the HorseMan mobile suits, decreasing the odds of success for the heroes, but eventually she had to give a sigh of relief when Optimus came blasting onto the scene with his weapons blazing and the six Gundams and Leobreaker right behind him. As soon as they were close enough, the six Gundams switched to their mobile suit modes and engaged anyone they could, be they mobile suit or Decepticon, sometimes even going after the undead Terrorcons that were among the enemy's number, and once Leobreaker jumped into the fray, it seemed that the odds may end up turning in their favor, but that was a very large "maybe".

From that point, everything descended into chaos, as everyone lost track of who was fighting who outside of their own battles beyond the fact that the Autobots, Gundam pilots, and Quintessa warriors were fighting the Decepticons and HorseMan pilots. Looking around one could see Leobreaker slashing through opponents at near light-speeds, Lunamaria firing everything that the Pure Impulse had at a group of HorseMan mobile suits along with Crosshairs, Shinn and Bulkhead tearing through a number of Vehicons, Athrun and Smokescreen trying to shoot down the Seeker Siblings, Arcee and Cagalli taking on Knockout, Breakdown, and Cyclonus, Rey and Springer facing off with Shockwave , and everyone else just taking whatever was left, and that was in the span of just a few minutes at best. Eventually though, one Terrorcon's armor caught Athrun's attention, and upon turning to the Terrorcon that it belonged to, Athrun was horrified to see a very familiar gold face with dark blue and gold armor.

"D…Dreadwing," Athrun whispered in horror, gaining the attention of the now undead, honorable former Decepticon despite the din of the explosions from the battle around them. Indeed, Athrun's late, first Cybertronian friend was standing before him fighting with the other Terrorcons, and Athrun did not need to see the various, dark purple scars that matched the similarly colored glow in his optics to know that Dreadwing had now become a Terrorcon as well anymore than he needed to hear the horrendous sound that came from Dreadwing's mouth in response as the undead warrior charged him.

"Dreadwing stop! It's me, Athrun," the Infinite Justice pilot pleaded as he attempted to dodge or block his undead friend's attacks. "Don't you recognize me?"

Dreadwing clearly did not, as he continued to lash out at Athrun like the animal that he had become until Smokescreen blasted the late former Decepticon away with a series of blasts from his Energon Bow. "Athrun, what's wrong," Smokescreen shouted as he continued firing on Dreadwing.

"Dreadwing…he…he was practically family to me," Athrun muttered in sorrow.

Smokescreen gasped in horror the minute he realized that this was indeed the same Dreadwing that Athrun had told him about, and the anger he felt towards the Decepticons immediately multiplied tenfold as he roared, "The Decepticons are going to pay for this! Dreadwing had died a proud and honorable warrior for a cause that he believed in, and they go and desecrate that sacrifice like this?!"

"Smokescreen," Athrun gasped in shock, having not expected that reaction from his present Cybertronian partner and guardian.

"Are you gonna just sit there and cry all day, or are you gonna help kick ass and make sure that those lousy 'Cons get what's coming to them for your friend," Smokescreen then asked.

Athrun's eyes immediately narrowed as he replied, "What do you think?"

The two then charged in with everything they had, as they attacked the undead Dreadwing and any other Decepticon that was unfortunate enough to cross their path, and that spirit was quickly mirrored by Cagalli and Arcee when they heard that Dreadwing's undead form was on the battlefield along with a number of their other fallen friends and enemies. This went on to spread to Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey as well when they saw that Stella had appeared before them once more along with the rest of the late Extended's former team, and it seemed that even the Quintessa warriors were sharing in that anger as they also attacked with a greater ferocity than before just from hearing that some of the fallen warriors that the visitors from Earth and Cybertron had once called friends were being forced to fight against them as these monsters.

The entire planet was now shaking under the force of the battle that was raging on its surface, and the Autobots, Gundam pilots, and Leobreaker and his forces were caught right in the center of it all, but the heroes eventually had to pause when another earthquake suddenly erupted and then intensified more and more by the second. Glancing around, Kira noticed that some of the Constructicons had vanished from the battle while no one was paying attention, and given how intense this quake was, that could only mean one thing. "They've found and unleashed the reservoir," Kira and Optimus gasped at the same time.

That suspicion was immediately proven true when the sky suddenly became blanketed in dark clouds following an eruption of the familiar, dark purple substance from somewhere off in the distance. Thankfully, they seemed to be far enough away for the Dark Energon to not affect them, but considering how large the flow of the evil substance was, they did not think that would matter for very long. The quakes continued to intensify as the dark substance continued to spur forth while the Decepticons' attacks on the heroes seemed to grow stronger and more vigorous, indicating that whatever happened, the forces of Galvatron and Le Creuset were determined to not let the heroes escape them, and with the way things were going, it was beginning to seem as though that this would be the end for them.

At least, until Alpha Q's voice suddenly rang out in the minds of Optimus, Kira, and Leobreaker shouting, _"Optimus Prime, Leobreaker, Kira, you must leave at once!"_

"Alpha Q, what do you mean," Leobreaker asked as he tore through another group of Terrorcon soldiers.

 _"This battle is lost and our world is doomed. There is no reason left for any of you to fight,"_ Alpha Q reasoned in all four of his personas' voices. _"There is only one thing left for us to do now to end this."_

"No…no you can't mean," Leobreaker suddenly pleaded in realization.

"What is wrong," Optimus asked, not liking how the brave warrior had suddenly become so afraid and worried.

"Alpha Q intends for us to leave while he remains behind and destroys the planet in an effort to stop them," Leobreaker explained in a panic, grabbing everyone's attention and horror.

"You cannot," Optimus then shouted to Alpha Q in protest. "We can still stop them and save your world!"

 _"That is no longer an option,"_ Alpha Q sighed in defeat. _"The Dark Energon reservoir's eruption has caused the planet to become so unstable that it is only a matter of time until it self-destructs anyway. At least by having you leave the world and letting us destroy it ourselves, we will be able to remove a good percentage of your enemies' numbers while ending things on our own terms."_

"But if you do this then you'll die too," Kira argued. "Just come with us and we can all get out of here!"

Alpha Q's voice was silent for a minute until he said, _"It is quite strange. You remind me so much of Rodimus, Kira Yamato. Perhaps his spirit lives on within you as it does through the matrix within Optimus. Please Kira, this is our choice, and at least this way, we will be with our lost brothers, sisters, and friends once again."_ No arguments were heard this time, and Alpha Q took that to mean that everyone had finally agreed to do as he asked, which left him with just one thing to add. _"Leobreaker, please go with them. They will need your strength in the storms that they will soon face. Take as many of our people as you can with you."_

Leobreaker hesitated for a minute, still wishing to defy his leader's request, but when he took note of the desperate sound of Alpha Q's tone, the lion 'Bot found he could do nothing but hang his head in defeat and reply, "I understand, Alpha Q."

Leobreaker then looked to Optimus and Kira and nodded to say that he was ready, and the Last Prime simply nodded in reply and shouted, "All Autobots and Quintessa warriors, fall back to the _Omega III_ at once! We are evacuating Quintessa! I repeat, fall back and evacuate at once!"

"Evacuating an entire planet that may be doomed to destruction," Bulkhead mused in soft, sorrowful remembrance. "Isn't this how we started on this whole adventure in first place?"

"Not the time, Bulk," Shinn admonished half-heartedly as he helped the others lead as many as they could onto the ship before they boarded as well, leaving Rey, Kira, Optimus, Cagalli, Arcee, and Springer to cover everyone else as they boarded the ship.

Once everyone was onboard the _Omega III_ , Optimus immediately shouted a demand for an immediate take-off, which Arcee and Smokescreen were more than happy to oblige, and in no time at all, the _Omega III_ was soon lifting off the ground and blasting higher and higher into Quintessa's skyline, leaving the planet behind as it went. Looking back at his homeworld, Leobreaker could not stop the pain that had quickly begun to form in his spark as he watched it fall further into chaos in its final moments along with his friend and leader, until a hand on his shoulder grabbed his attention, drawing his gaze to a very sympathetic looking Bumblebee.

"I couldn't help but look back one last time when the _Ark_ was leaving Cybertron too," Bumblebee told Leobreaker, and the lion 'Bot nodded in thanks to his fellow leader for his concern and sympathies before looking back at Quintessa one last time, this time from orbit, and then bringing his attention directly ahead.

As they flew further and further away, Leobreaker, the Autobots, and the Gundam pilots all heard Alpha Q say one last thing before his presence disappeared from their minds completely. _"Goodbye Leobreaker. Goodbye Kira, Cagalli, Athrun, Shinn, Lunamaria, and Rey. We will never forget any of you or what you had tried to do for us, and we will always consider you all our friends. Farewell Optimus Prime. You are truly worthy of the title that Rodimus was proud to have held once upon a time, and please look after our people as well as you do your Autobots. Thank you all for giving us hope of seeing Cybertron again one last time."_

Everyone's eyes widened in horror when they looked back once again just in time to see Quintessa implode with a brilliant flash of light mixed in with the colors of Dark Energon. A less emotional person with a taste for art would be able to look upon this sight and tell you that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and that it should be captured on a canvas at once before it vanished for all time, but everyone on the _Omega III_ only saw terrible destruction that spelled death for the world that they had just previously stood on and the friend that they had known only for a short time. The loss of Alpha Q hit Leobreaker and his people harder than anyone else, but the lion 'Bot knew that he had to be strong for his people's sake since they would now look to him for leadership and guidance. Still, he was thankful that Optimus spared him of the burden of asking for a respectful silence to honor Alpha Q and Quintessa's memory, as Leobreaker was sure that he would not have been able to do it without becoming choked up.

Once that moment of silence had passed, Springer was quick to report that it looked like the surviving Decepticons had slipped through a Space Bridge a few moments ago and were now long gone, and that meant that they no longer had any reason to remain where they were, so Optimus immediately ordered that they set course for Earth, feeling that they would be needed there as soon as possible. That belief was quickly proven true when Springer looked up from his console's readouts and shouted, "Optimus, we have an incoming emergency message from Earth right now!"

"Put it on screen," Optimus stated, and the image of space before the _Omega III_ was soon covered by a distorted hologram of Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld.

 _"_ Omega III _, do you copy! Please respond,"_ Waltfeld was practically shouting.

"Mister Waltfeld, we're here," Rey quickly answered. "What's happened?"

 _"There's no time to explain now! Just know that you've got to get back here on the double,"_ Waltfeld replied. _"Things have just gone from bad to worse on Earth, and that's not counting the fact that Galvatron, Le Creuset, and the Predacons are attacking along with their new friends from Nebulous and Velocitron."_

"What," Cagalli exclaimed in horror.

 _"I am afraid that there is other news that you may find distressing once you hear the full story,"_ Ultra Magnus reported. _"The natural disasters on Earth have reached a new level of intensity that I do not recall the planet ever facing in all of its history. In addition to that though, the team investigating the source of these disasters has finally made a discovery that may explain everything that has been happening to humanity's homeworld."_

No one needed to be told to get to Earth as quickly as possible twice after hearing that piece of news, as Optimus immediately stated that they were on their way at the ship's maximum speed, and they were soon blasting through the Space Bridge as fast as the _Omega III_ could go. The entire time though, no one could deny the feeling that they would not like the additional news they were about to receive once they returned to Earth.

* * *

 ** _AN: So how many of you did not expect this from the trip to the world of the Quintessons? Yes, I took the route that Transformers: Energon had taken with Alpha Q, because honestly, I thought it was more fitting to the story, and look at that, I included Rodimus Prime in the story as well for those of you who have been hoping he'd be here so much. And before anyone asks, he looks like he did in Transformers: Energon, just so we're clear on that._**

 ** _On another note, I included Leobreaker as a member of Quintessa's populace because with the Headmasters involved, I couldn't make Scorponok Alpha Q's faithful follower, and given his personality, Leobreaker was the perfect guy to fill said role._**

 ** _Moving on, I hope I made it clear to everyone that Alpha Q and the Quintessons were meant to be like the Cybertronian version of the Coordinators in this storyline, in case that wasn't obvious. This was because we always hear Optimus or one of the Autobots saying that they were once exactly like we were, and what better way to show that than by giving Cybertron their own version of the Coordinators vs Naturals thing?_**

 ** _As for destroying Quintessa, we all know that not everyone gets a happy ending, and that entails that the heroes don't always win. This is both a proof of that fact and a way to move the story forward by providing Galvatron and Le Creuset's big boss with a little something to help accelerate his return. Speaking of which, we'll be seeing more signs of that soon enough._**

 ** _Kira: Meaning what, exactly?_**

 ** _AN: You'll find out when everyone else does. Well, in your case, it'll be when we're doing work on the next chapter._**

 ** _Athrun: Excuse me, but what was with that whole moment between me, Smokescreen, and Dreadwing?_**

 ** _AN: What? We all knew that was going to happen at some point in this story. With undead pilots and Transformers, someone is going to run into someone that they knew, and the strongest impact comes from here, when Athrun meets up with the undead Dreadwing. Expect more of such meetings still to come, because like it was stated earlier, things will only be getting worse from here._**

 ** _But don't take my word for it just yet. See for yourselves. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Earth has fallen into pure chaos at its greatest, and the Autobots and Gundam Team are quick to jump right into the fray against Galvatron, Le Creuset, the Predacons, Ransack, and the Hive, but even a victory against these great enemies provides little comfort to the heroes when they learn what Feldt and her team have discovered about the natural disasters on Earth. With this chilling revelation, Optimus and Kira embark on a dangerous mission that may lead to their downfall, or to a decision that no one on the team will like to think about making. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 16: Monsters Within and Without** ** _. Optimus, Strike Freedom, face that devil that sleeps beneath the surface without fear!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	16. Monsters Within and Without

_**AN: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand done! Phew, that was a long one, so much happening, so much revealed, so much action, so much of everything that you've likely all been waiting for in the next update of this story, and not only that, but this is without a doubt the longest chapter in this story yet! And before you all ask, yes, with this, we are now really starting to wind it all down with the first arc of the story, and the next arc's beginning is just right around the corner now! WOOOO! Now, it's not the second major arc where our guys get sent to other dimensions and stuff, which you all know about from one of the ending author's notes of Destiny Sentinels, but rather, a kind of mini arc that ties this arc and that one together, but no need to worry about that right now, you all need to get on with the adventure so you can see what's going to happen.**_

 _ **So what're you doing wasting time still reading this?! Roll out to the story already!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 16: Monsters Within and Without**

The situation on Earth was not truly as bad as Waltfeld had indicated it was to the team on the _Omega III_ , for words could not describe how terrible things had really become on the home planet of humanity. The natural disasters alone had begun to lash out on the planet with a passion of ferocity that would lead one to think that some great being was unleashing a furious rage on the planet, leading entire cities to be evacuated with assistance from anyone that could be spared from both the Autobots and each military force in the Sol Federation, while storms that were powerful enough to rip through mountains raged, Earthquakes that could sink the largest islands roared, and tsunamis crashed into the various shores. Sadly, the Autobots and what few members of the Gundam Team that were currently on Earth could not be of much help in keeping the cities safe, as they found their main focus being directed to the massive army that Galvatron, Le Creuset, and Predaking had led to the planet.

While it was a problem to deal with the Hive Headmasters, Ransack, and the various Predacons that made up Predaking's generals alone, the fact that their forces did not stop there was not helping matters in the slightest, for now, there were numerous Transformer Terrorcons, a massive battalion of HorseMan mobile suits, and even what looked like a number of Predacon drones as well. Most of the disorientation that the defenders of Earth suffered from was due to the familiar lost allies that Galvatron and Le Creuset had corrupted by resurrecting as Terrorcons, but the sight of the Predacon version of the Vehicons among the number was easily just as surprising. Each of the Predacon drones held characteristics that could only be described as that of a downgraded version of Predaking, for the most part, giving some the impression that they could easily be Predaking's children, and while they did not possess the same vast power as their leader and generals, the Predacon drones did possess enough power to equal that of Galvatron back when he was Megatron at the very least, and that meant that the heroes were having to do all they could just to survive the overwhelming odds that were now raining down on them all.

Such things were evident as Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol struggled to fight off the various enemies they were facing along with Hound, Drift, and Jazz, in South America, even though those foes did not really have what they would consider to be the most competent of leaders. "Keep firing on them! Show them no mercy, for the glory of the Decepticons and your current commander," Ransack shouted out from his perch high above them, clearly content with just giving orders and watching instead of actually fighting like the cowardly crime boss he truly was.

"I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing to see that blowhard hasn't changed," Jazz grumbled as he fired his Scatter Blaster on the Predacon drones that were trying to pounce on him.

"What I'm trying to figure out is why just about every Predacon has to look like some kind of dragon. Who's with me on that," Dearka asked while he fired everything that the Verde Buster had at anything that was unlucky enough to fall into his line of fire. When no one answered him, Dearka just moaned, "Really? I'm the only one?"

"Yes, because in case you haven't noticed, most of us are just trying to focus on surviving this whole thing," Yzak shouted as he fired the Blu Duel's arm blasters along with the railgun mounted in the shield on its right shoulder. He then looked over to the black, stealth capable machine of the group and asked, "How're you holding up over there, Nicol?"

"Well I could be doing better, but I could also be doing worse," Nicol replied after he used the Nero Blitz's variable arm units to redirect a number of blasts that the Predacon drones tried to fire at him and then disappearing with a quick activation of the Mirage Colloid. A minute later, the black and red Gundam reappeared once again and fired both an arm blaster and a few Lancer Darts from its Trikeros that knocked a few Predacons drones out of the battle for a few minutes, not that it really mattered in the long run.

Ransack could only smirk with childish glee as he looked on at the battle bellow him and declared, "Soon everyone will see that I am both the strongest and the fastest in all the universe!" Ransack was then cut off from ranting any further when a blue and white blur suddenly slammed into him and knocked down into the battlefield. Once he had gotten back to his pedes, Ransack looked around angrily and demanded, "Who did that?!"

"Instead of ranting on about things that may or may not be true, which you should really double check every so often before you shout them to the sky like a lunatic, perhaps it would be better for you to actually consider fighting with your forces, which may guarantee your victory or lead to their downfall, seeing as with you as their leader, either option is extremely viable," Blur said in his usual high-speed voice as he skidded to a stop in front of Ransack with a smug grin on his face.

"Oh I'll show you what's viable and what isn't," Ransack shouted, and he immediately ran up to try and hit Blur in the face, only to end up hitting air as the super speeding Autobot ran around to behind him before Ransack could even blink. This continued for a few minutes until Blur finally had to let out a bored yawn and just knocked Ransack out with a quick punch to the head, proving that Ransack was clearly better off staying out of the fight after all.

Having dealt with Ransack, Blur immediately raced over to where Yzak and the others were and asked, "So what's the plan? Do we have a plan? Please, please, please tell me we have a plan, because I'm getting worried, and when I get worried I get nervous, and when I get nervous I feel…"

"We really don't care how you feel right now, Blur," Hound shouted as he fired whatever guns he had on his person that he could grab at the various enemies that continued to rain down on them and who also somehow managed to keep getting back up again. "Just focus on shooting these guys full of holes or hitting them!"

"Roger, no problem, you got it," Blur replied as quickly as usual, and he was off in a flash across the battlefield, disorienting or knocking out anyone he could as he went, but even with the Autobot speed demon helping them out, the battle was not going to turn in their favor any time soon.

Seeing this, and knowing that the nearby city was still being evacuated by the Rescue Bots, Yzak looked to Blur and shouted, "Blur, you'll be more help with getting the civilians in the city to safety! Go help with that and then come back with whoever you can so that we can finish this!"

"Excellent, yes sir, right way sir. Nobody gets the job done faster than me. Nobody, nobody, nobody," Blur replied, and he was soon blurring away to the city that Yzak had indicated.

Once Blur was well out of sight, Dearka glanced over at his friend and asked, "Did you just send off to help in the city because he could actually help there, or because you just didn't want to deal with him for too long?"

"A little bit of both actually," Yzak admitted with very little shame. "Now keep your head in the game, Dearka. We've still got some 'Cons to bring down!"

"Roger that," Dearka shouted, and he immediately let loose a powerful volley of energon blasts from every single gun that the Verde Buster carried along with a barrage of missiles, continuing the seemingly endless battle that the Joule team and their Autobot partners were currently facing.

* * *

Even places such as Gibraltar were not safe from the storm of enemies that the Earth was currently facing, as Scorponok stampeded across the Z.A.F.T. Earth base with a loud, angry roar. Admittedly, the now dethroned leader of Nebulous was very unhappy with being dragged away from his world and forced into joining the Decepticon cause, to put it mildly, but after witnessing the vast army and great power that Galvatron and Le Creuset held, Zarak found he could not say no to joining the two's cause without a second's hesitation. So now the Hive Headmasters were tearing through Gibraltar like no tomorrow along with the Terrorcons and Predacon drones that accompanied them, and the greatest opposition they were facing at the moment, were actually the Saviour, the Rosso Aegis, Blaster, and Strongarm.

The four were not really faring all that well on their own at first, but when the Protectobots arrived on the scene to provide some assistance, they had to let out sighs of relief for a few seconds. Such an addition was very welcome, as the minute the combiner team had arrived, they immediately came together as Defensor and took the fight to Scorponok with everything they had, but that still left the remaining Headmasters and the Terrorcons and Predacon drones that were with them to deal with, and that was proving to be just as difficult of a task as the one that Defensor was currently undertaking. "This is crazy," Strongarm shouted as she fired her energon crossbow at whatever enemy units fell into her sights. "Why would they launch such an attack on the Earth now?"

"I think that's pretty obvious," Heine commented after he took out a pair of Predacon drones with the Saviour's plasma beam cannons. "They think that we're extremely vulnerable."

"Of course they would think that," Shiho agreed after firing a few rounds from the Rosso Aegis's beam cannons. "Considering that Optimus isn't on Earth or Cybertron at the moment along with Kira and the rest of some of our best warriors in terms of both Autobots and Gundam pilots, this would seem like a golden opportunity to the 'Cons to hit us where we live. I just hope Cybertron is okay."

"Even if it isn't, it will be soon enough, seeing as Spartan is there holding down the fort," Blaster assured the group, and the fact that he did not say that in rap form was a clear indication of how serious the situation really was. "Let's just worry about what's happening right here and now, and leave Cybertron to whoever's there right now for the moment."

Everyone agreed with the normally rapping Autobot's sentiment, but it still did nothing to hide the worry that they all felt towards the Transformers' homeworld, and the rest of their allies across the globe.

* * *

"I'd hate to say it, but I think this might be one time that even the Wreckers will have to call for backup," Wheeljack admitted as he fired everything he could at the various 'Cons around him all in an effort to defend the now fully rebuilt Alaska Base, JOSH-A.

As he flew the Star Force Strike across the battlefield in its Sky Grasper mode while performing a number of strafing maneuvers, Mu had to honestly agree with Wheeljack's sentiment, because there was no way that they were going to last very long on their own. Granted the two had volunteered to head out and defend this base first, despite the bad memories that it held for them, but now that they were here and fighting the near impossible odds, they could readily admit that going into battle out here with just the two of them was not really their best idea.

So when Ironhide, Elita One, and the Aerialbots arrived to give them whatever support they could, the two were more than happy to accept the help, but their relief immediately turned to horror when Abominus suddenly crashed down before them and then turned a glare towards them before joining in the attack on the base as well. Everyone's first reaction was to scatter and take cover, naturally, but once they had taken cover, they found themselves drawing a blank on how to take down the Predacon combiner that was before them, as they were not entirely sure how long even Superion would last against him. That did not stop them from at least trying to bring the near invincible beast of the Predacons down anyway that they could, but sadly, any efforts they made were all ill met, and the fact that there were still a number of Predacon drones and Terrorcons swarming them did not help matters at all.

Things took a very serious turn for the worst when Silverbolt was suddenly knocked out of the sky by a blast from Abominus, but luckily, he was able to transform into his bipedal mode and ease his landing a bit before he took any serious damage. When Jetstorm heard about his leader being knocked out of the air, he immediately dove down and began using an Energon Repair Ray to patch Silverbolt up as quickly as possible, only pausing to confirm that Silverbolt would live through his crash landing, much to everyone's relief. When Silverbolt stood up after a minute though, Jetstorm immediately began to worry again. "Hey, you need to take it easy before you hurt yourself," Jetstorm told his team leader.

"I can't just sit back and let you guys fight that beast alone," Silverbolt argued. "We're going to take him down no matter what it takes. You with me Aerialbots?!"

The all-flyer team of Autobots immediately replied with a resounding yes, and that turned out to be all that Silverbolt needed to hear before he gave his next order. "Alright then. Aerialbots, combine into Superion!"

A matter of seconds later, the Aerialbots had came together and formed Superion, who was quick to turn both his attention and his weapons on Abominus, silently telling everyone present that he would deal with his Predacon counterpart, much to the others' relief. Still, that did not mean that the battle had become all that much easier.

* * *

As they stood in the New Iacon Base, Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus could both only look on at each of these battles that were raging across the Earth, including a battle in Africa that had broken out between the Dinobots and the other Predacons, along with everyone of their remaining allies present. Seeing that her husband was facing Abominus did nothing to alleviate Murrue's worry, but a comforting hand on her shoulder from Natarle did calm her nerves just enough for her to look away and pray for Mu's safe return. Even so, it did little to hide the fact that the danger Earth was currently caught up in was unlike anything they had ever dealt with before.

After watching for another minute of silence, Waltfeld looked to Fixit and requested that the Mini-Con open a communication channel to all their forces on the planet, which Fixit was happy to do. "Attention all units, this is Commander Andrew Waltfeld at the New Iacon Autobot Base," the Desert Tiger called out. "Optimus Prime, Kira Yamato, and their team have been informed of the situation and are now returning to Earth with the _Omega III_ moving at its top speeds. I repeat, our biggest reinforcements are on their way, but until they get here, we must hold the line at all costs!"

Ultra Magnus let Waltfeld's words sink in for a minute before he stepped forward and asked, "Ultra Magnus to Chairwoman Yamato. Could you please organize the space fleets so that they are ready for any possible enemy reinforcements? I highly doubt that Galvatron and Le Creuset will just continue this fight with the current level of strength they are displaying."

 _"That won't be a problem,"_ Lacus replied from her office in the PLANT capital. _"I've already had the fleet deployed with the_ Minerva _and the_ Eternal _spearheading the defensive line. Audrey has also organized what she could of the fleets on Earth that weren't aiding in any rescue efforts in a last line of defense for each of the major nations as well."_

"Excellent," Ultra Magnus replied, and he then turned his attention to his other allies. "Has there been any sightings of Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset since their first appearance on Earth?"

 _"Negative. We haven't seen them here,"_ Yzak reported as the sound of explosions rang out through his communicator.

 _"Nothing on our end either,"_ Defensor stated as he blocked a powerful blow from Scorponok.

 _"We've been a little busy worrying about the massive Predacon monster to really notice any…WHOA,"_ Mu suddenly cried out, getting everyone's attention, and Murrue's worry skyrocketing once again.

"Mu, what happened? Star Force Strike respond," Waltfeld shouted in concern for his friend.

 _"Relax, I'm fine, but I think I just spotted the head honchos flying overhead at a speed that I think could easily be close to that of faster than light,"_ Mu reported, much to everyone's brief relief.

"That is not possible," Ultra Magnus argued. "Even with enhancements, no Transformer is capable of FTL travel."

 _"Well the extremely loud sonic boom that accompanied their passing would probably beg to differ, because I barely even got a glimpse of them before it went off,"_ Wheeljack argued. _"I think that they're heading for the Dark Energon volcano."_

"That would explain it then," Ratchet reasoned. "Galvatron has Dark Energon flowing through him like regular energon does through us, and Le Creuset's machine is powered by the substance as well."

"And they've already confirmed that they become stronger with every bit of Dark Energon that comes from it, so maybe their proximity to the volcano gives them an even greater boost," Feldt immediately theorized.

"Well then it's a good thing that we can't afford to let them reach that volcano under normal circumstances," Waltfeld stated as he turned to where the Gaia was standing and immediately boarded the machine.

Ultra Magnus nodded to his fellow commander, and then looked to the Autobots' chief medical officer and said, "Ratchet, I'm leaving you in command here. Waltfeld and I will be heading out to intercept Galvatron and Le Creuset before they get any further."

"You can't be serious," Natarle argued. "Did you forget what they did to Optimus and Kira when they fought near that volcano the last time? They'll tear you apart like a sheet of paper. There's just no way you can win!"

"We're not going to try and win; we're just trying to keep them busy until the _Omega III_ and the guys on it are able to give us the backup we need," Waltfeld said, and he turned the Gaia towards the now open Ground Bridge and raced through it alongside Ultra Magnus, leaving Aisha to say a small prayer for her lover.

"Optimus Prime, Kira, and the others have just reached he last checkpoint in the Space Bridge before it comes out to the exit," Fixit suddenly shouted to the others, getting sighs of relief that none of them knew they were holding in.

Even though this was good news, Mayu still looked on at the monitor that was displaying the _Omega III_ 's current route and speed of travel towards Earth and silently whispered, "Please hurry, big brother. We need you and the others here now more than ever."

* * *

Galvatron and Le Creuset were completely giddy with excitement, right to the point where you could say that they would be jumping off the walls with glee if they were not currently flying through the air at speeds that the two of them had only imagined of reaching until now. Everything they had been working towards for so long now, was finally beginning to come together, and the Autobots and Gundam Team were playing right into their hands with every single move they made. Every battle they had fought, every world they had traveled to, even the very disasters that had plagued the Earth had served the two perfectly in what they were meant to do. That single purpose was to distract Optimus Prime, Kira Yamato, and all their friends and allies from the real danger that was unfolding right there, on their precious Planet Earth, and now, the power that lay within the Earth would soon be theirs for the taking. The fact that they could feel the Dark Energon inside of them gaining power and strength the closer they came to the volcano that had been the greatest trigger in this entire scheme was really just an extra boost to their good mood at this point, and now they just had a few more scenes to play out before the curtain fell on the first act of this grand performance of theirs.

The two were so caught up in their joy of their success that they barely managed to stop when a Ground Bridge portal materialized in front of them and deposited Ultra Magnus and the Gaia Gundam before them. Galvatron quickly assumed his robot mode while Le Creuset landed him machine on the ground, and the two just stared down the pair of commanders in their path for a minute, until they both finally laughed at the sight. "I had expected Optimus and Kira Yamato would have returned to try and stop us by now, but I never once thought that they would end up being forced to send their greatest lackeys to try and stop us," Galvatron continued to chuckle.

"Mock us all you wish, Galvatron, because if you wish to go any further, you will have to fight your way through us," Ultra Magnus stated in strong defiance as he readied the Forge of Solus Prime for battle.

"Please," Le Creuset scoffed. "You really think that you two can best us? You may be his second in command, Ultra Magnus, but you are certainly no Optimus Prime any more than my former colleague, Waltfeld, is Kira Yamato."

"You know something, Le Creuset…I never did like you at all," Waltfeld said, and he immediately followed up his statement by firing both of the Gaia's arm blasters directly at Le Creuset's Advocate Gundam, and the battle between the two pairs of leaders immediately began.

Ultra Magnus was quick to get race forward and close in for close-range combat against Galvatron, and he immediately connected a number of powerful blows to the Decepticon warlord with the Forge, but unfortunately, Galvatron was able to shrug off each of those blows without any problems at all, and quickly retaliated by batting Ultra Magnus's next attack with the massive, gold hammer aside like a bug. This allowed Galvatron to unleash a powerful barrage of his own against Ultra Magnus with his powerful fists, and after a few more minutes, he extended the wrist sword that was concealed beneath his Fusion Cannon and materialized a mace made of Dark Energon and unleashed a series of attacks on Ultra Magnus with those two weapons. Magnus was not going to let that stop him though, as even without the Forge, he was still a very capable warrior, and he quickly armed and fired one of his arm blasters at Galvatron so that he could try and force the dark warrior back and create a small smoke screen that he would then use to charge in for another attack with the Forge. He did succeed in forcing Galvatron back and creating said smokescreen, but his follow up attack did not bear any fruit in the slightest, as Galvatron had not been forced back as much as Magnus had been hoping he would have been. Seeing Galvatron smirk at him in amusement immediately told Ultra Magnus that even if he were to fight with everything he had, it still would not be enough to make Galvatron fight him with his full power.

The same could easily be said for the battle between Waltfeld and Le Creuset, as the Advocate Gundam possessed a little too much fire power for Waltfeld to be able to effectively handle on his own with its DRAGOONs constantly peppering the dark orange machine from all sides nearly every single second it could. Thankfully, there was a bit of a break in the DRAGOON barrage that Waltfeld could take advantage of, and the minute the next break came, he used it to transform the Gaia into its mobile armor mode and pounce on the Advocate with every bit of strength he could muster. Once Le Creuset was pinned beneath him, Waltfeld returned his machine into its mobile suit mode and readied an arm blaster to fire at point-blank range, but the Advocate was quick to knock the blaster away from its target and then kick Waltfeld off of so that Le Creuset could retaliate in kind with the DRAGOONs. Fortunately, Le Creuset never got the chance to launch the bit weapons, as Waltfeld made sure to stay in close to the masked madman, effectively turning the battle into a sword fight utilizing the Gaia's arm blades and the Advocate's beam sabers. Even so, Le Creuset still held the advantage, as Waltfeld was more of the type to fight with fast paced maneuvers that outflanked the enemy at every turn and not going in for a straight up brawl like this, which quickly became clear when the Gaia was knocked a fair distance away for Le Creuset to once again use the DRAGOONs without worrying about harming his own machine.

The end result was the Gaia getting knocked around by a barrage of energon beam blasts and then falling to the ground at just the same time that Ultra Magnus had. Despite barely being able to stand though, neither commander had any intention of backing down just yet, and they both moved to raise an arm blaster at each of their opponents. They were not able to charge the weapons up for even a basic level blast though, as Galvatron and Le Creuset both knocked the weapons aside and then stomped down on them both, leading Magnus to cry out in pain from his arm being crushed while Waltfeld did the same from the electric feedback that resulted from his Gundam being dealt such harsh damage. The two then looked up with defiance in their eyes, only to meet the smug grin on Galvatron's face, which they could also feel from Le Creuset through his own machine as the two both raised their weapons to try and finish them off.

"This would be so much more satisfying if Prime and Yamato were in your places, but we shall make do regardless," Galvatron boasted as his Fusion Cannon charged up, it's whir seeming more and more like a countdown to the end of Waltfeld and Magnus's lives.

That countdown was soon brought to an end when the dark leaders were suddenly blasted off of and away from the two commanders, and turning to the source, Galvatron and Le Creuset could not help but smirk a little when they saw the Strike Freedom and Optimus flying in to save their friends and face the madmen themselves. "Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset," Optimus began as he readied his arm blaster.

"You are not welcome here," Kira finished with a shout that was punctuated by a storm of blaster fire from all of the Strike Freedom's weapons and Optimus's own blaster. The two were quick to keep up their barrage as they drew closer and closer to their fallen allies, right until they were right next to both the Gaia and Ultra Magnus, giving Kira the opportunity to say, "Mister Waltfeld, Magnus, if you guys can still move, then get back to base, now."

"Not a chance, kid," Waltfeld stated after finally getting the Gaia back on its feet again. "We're sticking around to help anyway that we can."

"Andrew Waltfeld, please be reasonable," Optimus practically pleaded. "Your Gundam and Magnus have both sustained serious damage doing what you have as it is. You've done what you can here already, so leave the rest to us now."

Ultra Magnus wanted to argue with Optimus, but a glance at his damaged arm convinced him otherwise, so he simply nodded in acceptance and turned to help guide the Gaia to the open Ground Bridge that had allowed Kira and Optimus to reach them. Once the two commanders had gotten clear, Kira and Optimus knew that they could now fight without anything to distract them, and they immediately brought their entire focus on the two psychopaths before them. Galvatron and Le Creuset could only smile in response though, as they now had everything and everyone right where they wanted them, and they were more than happy to charge in with everything they had.

Before the two sides could clash though, Galvatron and Le Creuset suddenly froze in their tracks and grasped their heads as they cried out in pain. This came as a surprise to both Optimus and Kira, as this was not something that they had expected from either villain, but they did not let it deter them for long, as this gave them the perfect chance to finish off Galvatron and Le Creuset while they were vulnerable. At least, that was what they were planning to do, until they heard Galvatron cry out, "No please! We can do this, just give us a little more time! Please we…ARRRRRGH!"

It was not long after that unexpected bout of pleading that Le Creuset was also shouting out the same things, much to Optimus and Kira's shared confusion, which only grew when the two suddenly turned and began to retreat. As he was leaving though, Le Creuset only stated, "Enjoy your final days, Kira Yamato and Optimus Prime, for your ends and that of Earth's is now unstoppable!"

The two leaders of the Autobots and Earth's defenders just watched Galvatron and Le Creuset fly away until the two were nothing more than mere specks in the sky, each wondering what had just happened, and if something similar had happened to the others as well.

* * *

Mu could not deny that he was extremely glad to see the Destiny Team flying in to help alongside their Autobot guardians, and they were soon driving back Abominus and their other enemies much more easily. The tide had definitely taken a turn for the better for the freedom fighters, but things went from hopeful to confused when Abominus suddenly paused in his attack on Superion for a minute and then separated into the five Predacons that formed him, with Hun-Gurrr shouting out for their forces to retreat. Such order was clearly not well received, but every Terrorcon and Predacon drone obeyed the order none the less, and in no time at all, they had all disappeared into a Decepticon Space Bridge.

"Okay, that's was a bit strange, right," Mu asked, just to make sure that he was not the only one who did not expect that.

"Yeah it was," Wheeljack confirmed. "Sure we got some heavy hitting reinforcements, but that's never been much of a cause for any 'Cons to turn tail and run so quickly."

"Yeah, especially if what we heard about that Abomination Clan of Predacons is anything to go by," Bulkhead agreed with his old friend.

"So then what the hell happened," Shinn asked.

"Not sure, but maybe we'll get some answers after we get back to base," Rey suggested.

"I'm with Rey on this one," Lunamaria stated. "There's a fleet coming in to secure the area for us already so there's really no real reason for us to stick around."

Everyone quickly agreed with that sentiment and soon turned to return to base, each wondering the very same question that Shinn had asked a minute ago the entire time.

* * *

The strange string of enemy retreats had actually occurred in each of the major battlefields almost a few minutes after each group had received reinforcements from the _Omega III_ team, but the most surprising of all was when Predaking and his other brethren had retreated from the battle against the Dinobots, which had seen the addition of Cagalli, Bumblebee, and Arcee. At first, Arcee and Bumblebee were a little thrown off when they saw their old friend, Cliffjumper was among the enemy as a Predacon, but that shock was quickly replaced by a righteous fury, and they were immediately throwing everything they had at their old, zombified friend until Predaking called for a retreat.

Just before he disappeared into the Space Bridge though, Predaking had thrown a tentative glance at the Diamond Akatsuki, which only Cagalli had noticed, and the blonde could immediately tell that said look was Predaking's way of showing her that he was very confused on a number of matters at the moment, and he honestly wished that he could talk with her about it. Sadly, such a wish could not be granted at that time, as they both knew full-well, and Predaking had soon disappeared into the Space Bridge, leaving the Autobots to return to base as quickly as possible so that they could get some answers. When they did, they found out that they were actually the last ones to return, as everyone else was already their waiting for them and telling each other about what had happened to them.

"I swear, Zala and Smokescreen just showed up out of nowhere, started giving us support, and the next thing we know, the lousy 'Cons are turning tail and running," Yzak half-ranted, having honestly been annoyed at how it seemed like Athrun could just make the enemy run away just from showing his face on the battlefield.

"Well you're not the only one that happened to, Yzak," Shiho reminded the silver-haired man. "The same happened to the rest of us as well. They all just pulled a full retreat out of nowhere."

"Yeah, even Predaking and his brethren ended up doing the same thing," Cagalli revealed, announcing her team's presence to the gathered heroes.

"First Earth falls under siege not just from the natural disaster storm of the era but Galvatron's strongest warriors as well, then Kira and Optimus witness Galvatron and Le Creuset losing it like a pair of madmen, and then all these sudden unexpected retreats happen? Just what are they playing at," Lunamaria groaned aloud.

"I wonder…" Kira mused aloud, getting everyone's attention at once. "Le Creuset and Galvatron were ranting like they were pleading with some higher power that was controlling them. Maybe there's a connection there?"

"Rau Le Creuset had stated that he had been revived through the power of Dark Energon, but perhaps, that is only partially true," Optimus suggested. "Perhaps he and Galvatron were revived by the being that Dark Energon comes from."

"Optimus, you're not suggesting what I think you are, are you," Ratchet gasped.

"I wish I were not, old friend," Optimus immediately replied.

"Does someone want to fill us in? What're you all talking about," Natarle practically demanded.

"Optimus thinks that Unicron had something to do with Le Creuset and Galvatron's revivals," Bumblebee revealed.

"Is that even possible," Miriallia asked with worry extremely evident in her voice. "I mean, I thought Unicron was just a legend."

"The same thing was believed by every Cybertronian in regards to Primus until Optimus traveled to core and received the Matrix," Ironhide pointed out.

"Speaking of things at the core of a planet," Feldt spoke up. "I think you all might want to have a look at this."

"What is it Feldt," Kira asked as everyone turned to the station that the pink haired girl was seated at.

"I'm sure Ultra Magnus and the others have already told you all of this, but we've recently made a discovery of what might be the cause of all the natural disasters," Feldt began explaining. "The truth is, I think we weren't that far off when we all said that these storms were the Earth's way of crying out in pain, because we recently discovered that in reality, the many earthquakes that had been striking the Earth had originated from the same point as the Dark Energon that erupted from that volcano: the very center of the Earth's core."

"I may not be too much of an expert about stuff that affects the planet beyond the basic knowledge, but even I know that quakes don't start from the planet's core," Dearka reminded everyone. He then paused for a minute and glanced around at everyone before he finally asked, "Right?"

"Yes, that's right," Feldt confirmed. "It's not necessarily every earthquake, but rather, just some of the more major ones that have had repeat appearances on the Earth. The others are actually like echoes that were caused by the first ones. At first we all thought that it was nothing, like the fact that these quakes were rising and falling in a consistent pattern was just a coincidence, but after looking over the data once again, I played a hunch and converted the data points into audio files and discovered this. Listen closely."

Everyone immediately fell silent at Feldt's last two words, and the minute that she had finished bringing up the audio file that had resulted from her research, they all heard a slow, rhythmic beating coming through the speakers. At first, none of them were sure what to make of it, until finally, they all found themselves associating this particular beat with only one thing. "That sounds like…a heartbeat," Talia commented softly as said beat continued pulsing through the speakers.

"You're more correct than you realize," Ratchet stated. "After looking over the data that was gathered from those same data points since the very first strange natural disaster struck, we discovered that this supposed heartbeat was just that, and it was not always as strong as it is indicated to be now through the data that Miss Feldt had retrieved. It was much slower and weaker at first, but it seemed to speed up little by little over time, and took considerable jumps in speed when one of the Dark Energon reservoirs on the other planets were so much as tapped. With this information in mind, and the recent events, I think we can safely deduce that what we're hearing is in fact the sound of a heartbeat from deep beneath the Earth's surface."

"Hang on a minute," Flay cut in, waving her hands for the group to stop for a moment as she did. "Are you saying there's something living down there in the Earth's core?"

"I fear that it is much more than that, Flay Allster," Optimus stated. "If this information is accurate, then the Earth's core may not be comprised of magma as your science believes, but of Dark Energon."

"And that means that this heartbeat we're hearing isn't just any heartbeat; it's the pulse of Unicron's spark," Bumblebee softly added.

"I'd hate to point out the flaw in that logic, but several different scientist and excavation workers of many forms have long since confirmed that there is definitely magma beneath the Earth's surface, so even if Unicron's spark really is in the Earth's core like you're suggesting, then how is it that we've never encountered Dark Energon in those efforts until now," Sai reminded everyone.

"Maybe he was too weak to really do anything to make that magma into Dark Energon," Banagher suggested. "I mean, we never once detected any sign of the Earth having a pulse until now, so maybe his spark did not even have a pulse at all until something that recently happened caused that to change."

"It doesn't matter at this point," Kira interrupted, drawing everyone's attention. "All we have at the moment is just guesses. For all we know, Unicron's body could actually be the Earth itself, or it could be that his spark somehow infected the planet's core at some point during the time when the planet was beginning to form and we can find a way to remove him without destroying the planet. Right now, we should be more concerned about what happens when he fully reawakens, and what that reawakening will do to the planet." He then looked to the other Autobots and asked, "Tell me you guys have an idea on what will happen then?"

Optimus and the Autobots all turned away and hung their heads, leading everyone to come to the same realization. "You don't know, do you," Natarle quietly asked for every human present.

"As Kira had stated, all we have at the moments is mere guesswork," Optimus stated. "But nevertheless, we must find some way to prevent this force of nature from reawakening. The fate of both Earth and the universe depends on it."

That was all anyone needed to start jumping into action and organizing whatever they could in order to either stop Unicron from reawakening, or to save as many lives on Earth as they could in the current circumstances, but the one thought they all had, was a wish that they would survive what was to come from the rise of that which the Transformers considered to be the devil incarnate himself.

* * *

A few hours had passed, and no one at the New Iacon Base had discovered anything of great significance on how to stop Unicron from rising up and destroying the Earth, but that did not mean that nothing was discovered at all. During her scans of both the earthquakes that allowed them to discover Unicron's spark in the planet's core and the epicenters of each quake, Feldt found out that each area had a significant rise in natural metals that was not even remotely natural for the planet, and since they had no further leads on how to stop Unicron at that point in time, everyone agreed it would be a good idea to investigate these areas firsthand. Bumblebee had wanted to deploy a small team to investigate the areas, but that idea was immediately denied when Optimus stated that he would look into it himself. Everyone was against Optimus going out there alone, because they all knew that if Unicron really was awakening from beneath the Earth, then his history with the Primes would no doubt spell trouble for Optimus. After much arguing, Optimus finally relented and agreed to allow someone to accompany him to the site, but only so long as it was just Kira and no one else.

Lacus had wanted to deny this request immediately, but a simple look from Kira told her that he was going to go whether Optimus let him or not, so the supreme chairwoman of the PLANTs had to just nod in acceptance and give her blessings to the operation, and one Ground Bridge trip later, Optimus and the Strike Freedom Gundam were surveying the massive canyon that served as the epicenter of one of the quakes that Feldt had been studying. After the two had arrived, Kira immediately began using the Strike Freedom's sensors to scan the area as they walked further and further into the central most point of the epicenter, and those scans were quick to prove that Feldt's readings were indeed correct.

Having determined the same thing through his own sensor, Optimus immediately radioed the base, saying, "New Iacon Base, this epicenter is consistent with the findings of the others, just as Feldt Grace had said. The terrain has become much richer in natural ores and is continuing to do so at a much faster rate than is naturally possible for the Earth."

 _"So what does that tell us exactly,"_ Yzak asked, having not understood the significance of a sudden spike in natural metals.

 _"It follows that the sudden rise in Earth's natural metals indicates that Unicron is using them to become extensions of himself. His limbs, if you will,"_ Ratchet explained through the comm. link to everyone.

 _"So basically, he's having a morning stretch that's making more of the metal appear, and that's what caused those quakes in the areas that we've been scanning,"_ Nicol reasoned out for everyone.

 _"Exactly,"_ Jazz confirmed. Kira and Optimus only made a minor note of the conversation though, as they had already reached that conclusion for themselves, and continued on with the rest of their scans of the area, hoping to find anything that could help them stop Unicron's rise and Earth's destruction, or just the latter of the two at the very least.

Before the two could go more than two steps forward though, they heard the sound of the base's sensors going off, which was soon followed by Fixit calling out, _"Sirs, I've detected a sudden surge in Unicron's spark activity!"_

"Rest assured, Fixit, we will proceed with vigilance and caution," Optimus assured everyone, and he then turned around along with Kira when the sound of falling rocks grabbed their attention.

When they found the source though, the two's eyes both widened in shock when the image of a demonic looking face with horns and a slight goatee suddenly seemed to grow out of the nearby cliff, and a minute later, a pair of dark, evil eyes began to glow as the face actually spoke to them. **"Do you know me, follower of Primus and insignificant fleshling,"** the face asked the two in a deep, terrifying voice that sent shivers up Kira's spine and a slight chill through Optimus's armor.

That voice alone would have been proof enough as to the identity of the being that was now speaking to them for Optimus, and he immediately proved as such when he stated the being's name in a calm tone that surprised even the Last Prime. "Unicron, the Chaos Bringer."

 **"Good,"** Unicron stated in a near whisper. A minute later, the ground seemed to shake beneath Kira and Optimus until the rock face that Unicron's face had appeared in gave way to allow what appeared to be Unicron's body to step forth, leading Kira and Optimus to take a tentative step back at his sudden emergence and appearance. Looking on at the manifestation of Unicron, the two could only guess that this was a smaller scale replication of the Chaos Bringer's true form, and that form was one that they would both consider to be fitting of one that was believed to be evil incarnate. A pair of large horns extended up from both his shoulders in addition to the two horns atop his head, and his shoulders, arms, knees, and back all had a set of thorns extending forth, further enforcing his dark nature. The rest of his stone armor was almost structured like that of twisted bones. After allowing the two to gaze upon his terrible form for a full minute, Unicron then went on to say, **"Now know me as Unicron, your destroyer!"**

There was barely enough time for the two to raise their arms in defense, as Unicron charged forth with both of his hands taking on the forms of a massive, spike covered shield and similarly designed sword, which he quickly used to attack the two champions of peace and freedom. Kira was severely tempted to fire any one of the Strike Freedom's weapons in retaliation at this manifestation of the greatest evil in all Transformers history and myth, but a look from Optimus immediately told him that doing so at this time was not likely the best course of action, so Kira found himself remaining on the defensive along with Optimus, dodging and parrying every attack that Unicron sent at them, until they gained enough breathing room for Optimus to attempt to reason with the Chaos Bringer.

"I humbly request your ear, Lord Unicron," Optimus asked with his arms wide to show that he meant no ill-intent in his offer, while Kira was left to wonder if Optimus's efforts would make any difference.

Hearing the Last Prime's words, admittedly, caught Unicron off-guard, but to hear one of Primus's disciples asking to make a request of him was still intriguing to say the least. With his curiosity being so hard to ignore, Unicron found that he had to ask, **"And what would a _Prime_ be so compelled to say to me?"**

Optimus was glad to see that he had Unicron's attention, but he knew that he had to act fast if he were to keep it, so immediately began to make his case. "I make this appeal not for myself, but for this planet which you seem to constitute and the beings who inhabit it, such as my young friend that is here with me, right now," Optimus stated. "Human kind relies upon you for life and sustenance. Your resurrection will only result in the destruction of a species which appear to have evolved from the seeds of your very greatness."

Kira immediately saw what Optimus was doing with that one speech. He was hoping that if Unicron really was the Earth itself, then Unicron would consider the planet and those who lived on it as beings that were deserving of his care due to the fact that they came from his existence, essentially hoping that the Chaos Bringer had some form of kindness in him that would allow him to let the Earth and all those who called it home to live. Looking to Unicron's form, Kira could see that there was likely a chance that it would work, which was further enforced when Unicron asked, **"So this 'human kind' of whom you speak…you believe them to be my progeny?"**

"Indeed," Optimus confirmed.

Kira saw this as an opportunity for him to speak as well, so he took a chance and raised himself out of the Strike Freedom's cockpit as he cried out, "Lord Unicron, my name is Kira Yamato, and I am here to act as a representative of humanity. If you truly are what we have come to know as Planet Earth, then I ask that you please allow us to live. We've done nothing to you except let the world that was once your body act as our home, and if you were to unleash your full power in reawakening now, you would destroy us all and leave us without a world."

Unicron looked down at Kira, studying him for a moment as though he were trying to determine if Kira was worth paying any mind to, and then looked back to study Optimus, until he finally barked out a humorless laugh. **"Utter fools,"** Unicron chuckled. **"I am not the world that human kind inhabits. In truth, like human kind, I inhabit this world. You see, what your dear Primus had never known, was that after he and his first disciples had defeated me, my essence was divided from my body, my very anti-spark cast adrift to wander through space for all time, until it eventually found a vessel to inhabit and regain strength inside of without anyone knowing. That vessel was this world's very core. My influence on this world had never been great, for I spent millennia in stasis, waiting for something to grant me power to regain my lost sentience and power, and eventually, that came to me when the Cybertronians found themselves here on this world years ago. To be more specific, it was approximately five of this world's years."**

"When humanity first met the Autobots and Decepticons," Kira whispered in realization as he slowly lowered himself back into the Strike Freedom's cockpit, having sensed where this conversation was no doubt heading.

 **"Correct,"** Unicron replied. **"When the one you called Megatron first came down to this planet, the sample of my life blood that flowed through his being reawakened me from my slumber, and from that moment on, I began to subtly influence certain beings and events so that I would regain my lost life and finally purge myself of this planet that I have been forced to use as a shell."**

"So then, you are not the Planet Earth, but a parasite that has infected it," Optimus practically snarled in distaste.

 **"Yes, and the fact that you believed otherwise disgusts me,"** Unicron snarled in reply. **"Soon human kind will also know my wrathful hand, once I have regained every last bit of my lost power! But first, I shall finish the two of you!"**

The next thing that either Optimus or Kira knew, Unicron had transformed his shield and sword into a pair of large, clawed hands, and used both open palms to direct a burst of dark purple lightning at them both, which sent them flying the moment the bolts struck them. As they struggled to stand again, it became clear to them by the fact that Optimus felt so weakened and that the Strike Freedom's systems were malfunctioning greatly for a moment that the lightning was comprised of Dark Energon. Kira continued trying to get the Strike Freedom to rise so that he could counterattack, until he saw Unicron's form coming closer to them, and he immediately began preparing something else to in response.

 **"The line of Primes has grown weak in my absence, and it would seem that human kind is far weaker than you led me to believe,"** Unicron commented once he stood over the two heroes and prepared to strike them again with his Dark Energon lightning. **"And thus you shall both fall!"**

"We will eventually meet our ends someday, that's a given fact, but we won't be meeting our ends today, and it definitely won't be because of you," Kira shouted, and a minute later, the Strike Freedom spread its wings, and began peppering Unicron with a barrage of attacks from its blue DRAGOONs. With Unicron distracted by Kira's sudden attack with the bit type weapons, Optimus was able to finally sit up and transform his left hand into a blaster that he quickly used in combination with Kira's weapons to destroy the rock manifestation that Unicron had created of himself.

The two then watched as the manifestation crumbled into dust, but they were quickly moving to stand back-to-back when many more manifestations began to spring forth from the rocks and cliffs around them in a sudden quake, and they could only hope that they would be able to hold out against what they were about to face. Sadly, it seemed that Unicron had no intention of letting them do so, for the Chaos Bringer soon spoke through each manifestation, and said, **"You are mistaken, foolish human child. You and the disciple of Primus will both meet your ends on this very day, for Unicron may be one, but we all are Unicron!"**

The manifestations of Unicron continued to form all around the two heroes of Cybertron and Earth, each slowly advancing towards them the minute that they had fully formed, and for a moment, Kira and Optimus were both unsure of what to do until they heard Fixit's voice calling out to them over their comm. links. _"Optimus, Kira, have either of you discovered any further signs of Unicron's emergence,"_ the Autobot Mini-Con asked.

Optimus and Kira just opened their comm. links up completely so that everyone at the base could hear what was going on around them, and it was just in time for everyone to hear Unicron's many vessels say, **"Unicron is power incarnate, and you, the last of the Primes and your pathetic, organic pet, shall both perish!"**

 _"I take that as a mess…guess…YES,"_ Fixit commented.

Ultra Magnus was quick to speak up after that, and immediately stated, _"We're on our way to your location now."_

"Negative," Optimus immediately denied. "Unicron cannot be defeated by sheer force. He wants me, Magnus, so this fight must be mine alone. Instead, send a Ground Bridge to bring Kira back to base."

"Belay that order," Kira shouted before anyone else could say anything. "I'm not going anywhere. If Unicron wants to get to you or destroy Earth, then he'll have to go through me, first."

Optimus was about to argue with Kira, when Unicron stated, **"You would be wise to listen to the human, disciple of Primus, for I can easily sense your influence upon him, and how it has affected him. He is now as much a target of my wrath as you are, and I will not rest until both of your sparks are extinguished."**

That was all the prompting that Optimus needed to ready both his left arm blaster and the Star Saber for battle, while Kira simply activated the Strike Freedom's arm blasters in preparation for action as well, and the minute Optimus's battle mask snapped into place, the two's battle against Unicron's vessels began. In a mere instant, a vast number of the stone vessels had jumped at Optimus and Kira to attack, but the Strike Freedom was quick to strike back by firing both its arm blasters at the manifestations and then blasting to the side so that Optimus could cleave the remaining ones in two without worrying about harming the mobile suit or its pilot. Optimus then charged forward with his arm blaster firing as he went, until he was right in front of three more vessels, and unleashed a powerful swing with the Star Saber that cut down the stone bodies with a single blow of its glowing blade. Optimus continued to slash at the vessels of the Chaos Bringer that were directly around him with the legendary weapon of the first Prime, pausing only for a moment now and again to fire his arm blaster at close range to deliver equally devastating blows against them that quickly reduced the living statues to rumble, but it did nothing to hide the fact that for every vessel that was destroyed, another five were waiting to take its place.

Kira was quick to face a similar problem to Optimus's, but since the Strike Freedom was not as bulky and large as Optimus was, he was able to evade any attacks more easily than the last Prime could, and he eventually increased his speed even further by taking the fight into the skies so that he could unleash a powerful barrage of attacks from above using all of the Strike Freedom's weapons at once. Said barrage was probably one of Kira's most fearsome attacks yet, which was to be expected, as Kira was actually shooting like he meant to kill in this case. Though one would argue that since the stone vessels were not technically alive, but were rather mere drones that acted as extensions of Unicron's will, it just meant that Kira took it as a reason to not hold anything back at all in his attacks. This was further enforced when Kira swooped down and slashed apart several different vessels with one of the Strike Freedom's arm blades, which he immediately changed back into a blaster once again in order to finish the job, while the rail cannons destroyed another four in one pair of blasts. When one of the manifestations caught him from behind, Kira was quick to set his Gundam's DRAGOONs loose on the stone vessels, and the bit weapons immediately made quick work of the living statues that were holding him down while taking out any that were moving in to try and keep him pinned, giving him just the chance he needed to fire everything he had from the Strike Freedom's arm blasters and multi-phase beam cannon.

From where he was continuing to slash or blast through his own group of manifestations, Optimus was able to easily catch a number of glimpses at Kira's machine as the young admiral fought against the same enemy that he was facing, and if he were to be honest with himself, Optimus was actually happy to see that Kira was doing so well in this battle. Such skills against nearly impossible odds in combat were a sure sign of how far Kira had come as both a warrior and a defender of his world and peace since they had met one and other, and Optimus was actually quite glad to see that Kira showed just how grateful he was to have met Optimus by incorporating some of the last Prime's old fighting style into his movements. It was not really all that noticeable to just anyone, but to Optimus, it was very obvious that many of the moves that the Strike Freedom made were almost exactly the same as the ones he would have used before he had received his upgrades, leading Optimus to really wonder just how closely Kira had actually been studying the fighting style of each Autobot since he met them.

He was quickly stirred from his musings though, when his glances at Kira ended up being his downfall. When he had paused to take one such glance, Optimus quickly found himself punched in the gut by one of Unicron's vessels, and though he was able to retaliate against the one that had landed said attack, it did nothing to keep him from being pounced on from behind and then held down by a vast number of the stone vessels only a second later. This did not go unnoticed by Kira, and the Ultimate Coordinator immediately turned the Strike Freedom in Optimus's direction so that he could help the Autobot leader, slashing and blasting through each of the living statues that came at him as he went. Sadly, Kira was not able to make it to Optimus, and he was soon pinned and held down as well by another group, leaving Unicron with a chance to send a vessel towards each of them with intent of finishing the two heroes off for good.

Just as the two vessels were preparing to strike Optimus and Gundam, a sudden barrage of energon blasts suddenly ran through them and caused them to collapse, saving both the Autobot leader and the Gundam Team leader from destruction. When Optimus and Kira looked to the source, they saw a Ground Bridge depositing Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, Crosshairs, and Springer along with the Gundams of the Destiny Team, Athrun, Cagalli, Waltfeld, and Mu to provide them with a last minute rescue. Said rescue efforts continued when the Diamond Akatsuki and Arcee swooped down from above and each kicked one of the manifestations of their respective team leaders, while Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and the Infinite Justice leapt over to knock off a few more before opening fire on the living statues around them. Magnus was then quick to lead the Wreckers that were present in an all-out attack on the manifestations that were leaping down from the top of the canyon, while Shinn, Luna, and Rey dealt with the last of the vessels that were attempting to regain their hold on Optimus and Kira before joining the Wreckers alongside Mu and Waltfeld.

It was now a battle that pitted the nine Autobots and eight Gundams against complete chaos in every sense imaginable, for they were all quickly firing everything they had at each of the stone vessels in an effort to hold Unicron back, and while Optimus and Kira were both grateful for the rescue, it did little to abide the anger either of them currently felt building up in regards to their teammates. "Did you not hear our orders," Optimus demanded of the team that had come to save him and Kira. "Return to base!"

 **"Reinforcements will not prevent yours or your pet's destruction, disciple of Primus,"** Unicron taunted Optimus as he and Kira joined the others in firing on the stone extensions of the Chaos Bringer.

"Optimus, you and Kira are Unicron's targets, so maybe _you two_ should consider returning to base," Arcee quickly argued with her commander after electing to just tune out Unicron's words.

"These manifestations of Unicron can locate Kira and I anywhere on Earth. Even our base's shielding would only cloak our position for so long. We will not put others at risk," Optimus immediately countered as he punctuated the last words with a surge of energy from the Star Saber.

"Then fall back to the moon or the PLANTs where he can't reach you guys. I don't really care which one, but you still need to get out of here and let us take the lead for once," Cagalli told the last Prime in response to his argument.

"It would be wise to listen to the reasons that your team is giving Optimus," Ultra Magnus agreed. "If either you or Admiral Yamato don't survive this, then I fear that neither will the planet or the universe."

Optimus and Kira both wanted to argue with the words of their teammates, but in the end, they could not help but acknowledge that they were right in what they said, so in the end, the two could only nod their heads as Kira voiced their decision for both of them. "Very well. We'll follow your lead."

The minute that Kira said those words, the two teams formed up around their respective leaders, as Athrun gave the word to the group. "Let's roll 'Bots and pilots!"

The Infinite Justice and Smokescreen were quick to take point in their charge to escape, with Bumblebee, Arcee, and the Diamond Akatsuki falling in right behind them, and the remaining members of both teams shortly after that, with Kira and Optimus running right in the middle of an encirclement formed by both Springer and the Wreckers, and Mu, Waltfeld, and the Destiny team. They did not put all their focus on fighting the manifestations that were still surrounding them unless any tried to intercept them, and every time that one of the living statues did, they were quick to blast apart the rock extensions of Unicron in a few quick bursts of energon or high speed slashes of arm blades, beam sabers, Anti-Ship swords, and the Grand Destiny's beam sword. Their charge led them further and further through the crowd of Unicron vessels as they climbed higher and higher, until they finally made it out of the canyon and each transformed into their vehicle modes so that they could race away from the area to a point where they could safely call for a Ground Bridge to anywhere but their present location.

For a brief moment, they all thought they were clear of Unicron's assault, and none of them could help breathing a sigh of relief, but they quickly found that they had done so a little too soon, as they all came to a screeching halt and transformed back into each of their bipedal forms when a large mountain suddenly began to collapse in their path. When they did come to a stop and got a better look at what had happened to the mountain though, they saw that it had not actually collapsed, but had actually transformed into a much more massive version of the stone manifestations of Unicron that they had just escaped from. Unlike the others though, this one had a very clear set of spine-like wings on its back, making it look even more menacing and devil-like than the others did.

Looking at this massive beast before them, the only thing that Shinn found he could say was, "And I thought that Tidal Wave and the Destroys were big."

"So is that Unicron," Bumblebee finally asked after another tentative moment.

"No, not Unicron himself, but another of his manifestations," Optimus clarified, but somehow, that did not make anyone feel any better.

"Seriously, if this is just a manifestation, then I'd hate to think about just how big the actual guy is," Mu groaned in despair.

"Considering that he fought against Primus, and that said 'Bot is now Cybertron, I don't think it would take much to figure out how big Unicron actually is," Waltfeld commented to his fellow commander.

"Thanks for that pleasant thought," Lunamaria remarked, dryly.

"More importantly though, if we can't beat Unicron or outrun him, what in the name of the AllSpark are we supposed to do," Springer finally asked in an attempt to get everyone back on track.

"All we can do," Optimus replied when he saw the massive manifestation begin to stomp towards them. "Neutralize his vessels as they appear, until we find a way to destroy him without destroying the very Earth upon which we walk and that he has infested with his darkness."

"You heard the 'Bot," Kira shouted in a commanding tone as he readied the Strike Freedom's arm blasters once again. "Wreckers, Springer, Destiny Team, Mu, and Mister Waltfeld, pick a leg and take this beast down. Bee, Arcee, Smokescreen, Cagalli, and Athrun, go for the eyes, mouth, and whatever other vulnerable points that you can. Optimus and I will try to keep his attention on us. Let's roll Autobots and Gundam pilots!"

The reaction to Kira's orders was instant, as the Wreckers immediately assumed their vehicle modes and raced around to a position where they could attack the manifestation's legs without being crushed beneath its feet, with the Gundam pilots that Kira had designated for the same job following them shortly after. Once they were all in position, they were quick to fire whatever they could at Unicron's legs with each of their strongest weapons or arm blasters. As he fired his own blaster at the massive monster alongside Mu, who was firing the Star Force Strike's rifle, Wheeljack had to mutter, "'Go for the legs and take it down,' he says. Like that's really gonna be that easy!"

"Is that doubt I hear in your voice, Jackie," Mu lightly taunted while he continued to fire whatever he could at the massive monster before him.

"Heh, you wish," Wheeljack rebuked. "But even I know when I'm trying to do something that's way over my…SCRAP, MOVE!"

Wheeljack's sudden exclamation probably could not have come sooner, as each of the Wreckers, the members of the Destiny Team, Mu, Springer, and Waltfeld were instantly racing to get away from the massive arm that Unicron was slowly swinging down at them, but sadly, they were not able to get clear of the attack fast enough, and they all ended up being thrown the air like ragdolls until they each crashed down a rather impressive distance from where they had previously been. Unicron's massive manifestation then slowly turned around when a barrage of energon blasts suddenly rang out from his opposite side, and he quickly spotted Arcee, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen firing everything they had towards at his head while Athrun and Cagalli were flying just above the three in their Gundams' vehicle modes. Sadly, most of the shots that the three Autobots fired were intercepted by the mountain-sized vessel's arm, and when they saw it reeling its other arm back for an attack, they immediately transformed in the hopes of being able to race away in time to avoid the attack. Sadly, their efforts did not meet with gratifying results, and they all ended up being knocked through the air just as their other comrades had been earlier.

"Arcee! Bumblebee," Cagalli shouted out in worry for her two friends. She was naturally worried for Smokescreen as well, but since she knew the other two for far longer and much better than the younger 'Bot, she was understandably more worried for them, and as such, she was quick to turn her full furry on Unicron's vessel afterwards for his attack on them. "Damn you!"

The minute Cagalli had flown close enough to the mountain monster's head she transformed the Diamond Akatsuki into mobile suit mode, and threw out one of the Gundam's reflective DRAGOONs to where it would be situated directly above the Chaos Bringer's head. Once it was holding in said position, Cagalli immediately fired both of her Gundam's arm blasters at the DRAGOON, causing the blasts to be refracted multiple times over as they rained down on Unicron's head from above. This attack continued in a strong pattern for some time, drawing up a great deal of smoke around the head of the large vessel's head until Cagalli finally ceased firing, only to find that she barely put more than a few cracks in it, much to her dismay, and to add further humiliation to this fact, she was then quickly batted aside by the massive beast like a common fly, and ended up crashing into the Infinite Justice just as Athrun was about to charge in with his own assault on the Chaos Bringer's vessel. Athrun's need to try and strike at Unicron's vessel was immediately intensified with Unicron's attack on his wife, but he put all of his focus on making sure that they both landed safely first after they crashed to the ground.

"Are you okay, Cagalli," Athrun asked with every ounce of worry he felt seeping into his voice.

"Yeah, I think so," Cagalli moaned in reply before she shot Athrun a loving, thankful smile through their communication monitors.

A loud crash brought their attention back to the battle at hand, but sadly, it had only been in time for them to see Optimus and the Strike Freedom become buried beneath a storm of boulders that the manifestation of Unicron had sent flying onto them. Kira and Optimus had done their best to avoid such an outcome, but sadly, even the Strike Freedom's top speed could do nothing to save either of them from being pinned down beneath the large rocks. Unicron's massive vessel then began to slowly stomp towards the two, ignoring the weapons fire that the Wreckers and the Destiny Team were now throwing out at them as though they were just mildly irritating bug stings as he walked, and then raised his massive foot to show he fully intended to give Optimus and Kira a firsthand experience of an ant's quarrel with a boot.

 **"I am part of this world's past and its future and as of this moment, all Primes and their protégés are simply past,"** Unicron bellowed out as his raised foot lowered closer and closer to Kira and Optimus as the two struggled in vain to free themselves before it was too late.

"NO," Arcee, Bumblebee, and Cagalli all shouted in horror as the Chaos Bringer used his massive vessel in such a manner, until someone suddenly fired a series of blasts right at and through the massive beast's head until it finally fell and then crumbled to the ground in pieces.

When the dust finally settled and the team had holstered each of their weapons while looking on at the rumble that had once been a giant manifestation of Unicron, Crosshairs ended up being the one to ask the all-important question. "Uh…who did that?"

"Wasn't me," Smokescreen replied.

"Not me either," Bumblebee immediately added, with Arcee shaking her head in the negative as well.

"Don't look at us," Rey told everyone as he indicated himself, Lunamaria, and Shinn.

After a full minute, it became crystal clear that none of the gathered Autobots and Gundam pilots had dealt the fatal blow to the enemy they had previously been facing, leading Ultra Magnus to contact the base to see if anyone there could give them an explanation. _"Sorry sir, but even if the other Autobots and Gundam pilots who have been confirmed to be on Earth at this time were not at the base, I would still have to tell you that there are no other signals of either kind in your area, let alone ones that could execute such an attack,"_ Fixit reported to everyone's further confusion.

"Then exactly what did happen," Ultra Magnus finally asked.

"We happened," a painstakingly familiar, deep voice called out in response to the Autobot Second-In-Command's question, and everyone immediately turned to the source of said voice to see that no matter how much praying they did, nothing could disprove who was now standing atop the rumble that had once been a massive manifestation of Unicron.

There, atop the rumble, with each of their respective, signature weapons raised high in the air, likely from when they had been previously aiming at Unicron's head, were none other than Galvatron and the Advocate Gundam in all of their terrible glories. The two villains then leapt down from their perch to where Optimus and Kira had fallen after finally managing to dig their ways out of the boulders that they had been buried under, and then raised their weapons at the two warriors of freedom. Everyone was instantly training their weapons on Galvatron and Le Creuset, but to their surprise, neither of the two fired on Optimus or Kira, but instead, just offered them both a hand up, which both heroes cautiously accepted.

"Well, this is rather ironic, isn't it, given our last encounter," Le Creuset commented over an open channel. "Unless I am mistaken, the two of you were desperately hoping to end our lives in retaliation for our attacks on Earth and your friends."

"There was nothing desperate about it, and believe me, that option is still in play," Kira warned the masked man and his Decepticon ally.

Galvatron just stared at the Strike Freedom for a moment until he gave a small laugh and said, "You seem to have taught your human protégé well, Prime, for Le Creuset and I would expect nothing less from either of you." Optimus's silent glare was all the confirmation that Galvatron needed before he continued on. "However, we have a proposal. Join us in defeating our shared enemy: Unicron, the Chaos Bringer."

Everyone was completely stunned to hear this, and they were all honestly not sure what to think in hearing this, until Ratchet gave them the answer through their comm. links. _"Absurd! Unicron is evil incarnate. If Galvatron and Le Creuset were to take any side, why would it be ours?!"_

"Because even after all the changes they have been through, neither one of their prides would ever allow anyone other than themselves to either rule or destroy the galaxy," Optimus immediately reasoned.

"You know me all too well, Optimus," Galvatron quipped in reply.

"You lead an army of 'Cons, among which are the Predacons that we've barely managed to survive against, and all those Terrorcons, including the ones that pilot the HorseMan mobile suits, and all those cheap clones," Bulkhead quickly pointed out. "Why would you come to us?"

"Because this endeavor requires something beyond the realm of either of our commands," Le Creuset quickly replied, throwing a glance in Optimus's direction a minute later as he finished. "The power of a Prime."

"Then I guess we don't need either one of you, so you can both screw off and go to hell," Shinn scoffed in reply.

"On the contrary, Optimus may be the only one who can defeat Unicron, while simultaneously purging him from the Earth, but Rau Le Creuset and I remain the only ones who can guide you to him," Galvatron immediately countered, causing Shinn's smug grin to immediately fall upon hearing the statement. "Unicron's life blood runs through us, and only we can hear his thoughts and anticipate his movements," Galvatron continued on, until he paused and gave Optimus a small look to show just how serious he was. "Optimus, Kira Yamato, our past alliances, Autobot, Decepticon, Z.A.F.T., Earth Alliance, Orb, no longer matter. Not while Unicron lives."

"Like hell it doesn't," Athrun shouted. "The past always matters, something neither of you seem to grasp considering how flippantly you two pervert the sacrifices made by others by turning them into those monsters you've sent against us!"

"A truce between Autobots and Decepticons, and Earth's heroes and its greatest enemy," Optimus mused aloud, in an attempt to keep Athrun's emotional outburst from causing things to fall out of hand. "How long do you expect us to believe that will last?"

"Only as long as is mutual beneficial, of course," Le Creuset casually replied, acting as though it were not such a big deal.

"And what about afterwards, when this 'shared mission' you're both proposing is finished? What will happen then," Kira asked, though one could easily sense the slight, demanding edge in his tone despite his best efforts to conceal it.

"We will conquer this world, Cybertron, and the entire universe, while simultaneously eliminating every last trace of any possible resistance, our way," Galvatron immediately replied in blunt, yet still surprising, honesty.

"Brutal honesty from a Decepticon and the greatest terrorist in human history," Arcee mused in skepticism.

"Well they do say everything's relative," Waltfeld pointed out.

"It does not change the facts," Ultra Magnus argued. "Aligning with the lesser of two evils, is still siding with evil."

"Do you think you've witnessed the full power of Unicron," Galvatron rhetorically asked.

"You'd be fools to do so," Le Creuset immediately added on. "Those mere foot soldiers were nothing more than a taste of his true power. Unicron has yet to fully awaken, and with each passing second, the Chaos Bringer evolves, mutating Earth from the inside out. Once he has regained enough power though, he will no longer need to use the Earth as a vessel to aid in his restoration, and then…well, I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you what one would normally do with something that they come to consider completely useless and a waste of space."

"What you have witnessed up till now, is but a prelude to the utter devastation that Unicron's rising will reek upon the Earth before he finally sheds it away like a snake's skin," Galvatron finally finished.

"Like your quest for power destroyed Cybertron," Bumblebee accusingly snapped at Galvatron.

"Or how your insane beliefs nearly ended all life on Earth," Mu added on in regards to Le Creuset.

"Make no mistake, this time, there will be planets left for us to rule, after all, there are plenty of them in the universe," Galvatron snapped in reply.

Before the arguments could go any further, Rey felt that he had to intervene in order to point out one small flaw in this plan. "Even if we agree, Unicron is still all the way at the center of the Earth. How're we supposed to get there; drive?"

"There's only one way," Kira immediately replied, and it did not take long for anyone to figure out what Kira was thinking, and from the look of Optimus's expression, it was clear that the last Prime was thinking the same thing.

 _"ABSOLUTELY NOT,"_ Ratchet roared in defiance when he heard the statement at the base. _"Ground Bridging from Earth into the PLANTs, or onto moving colony ruins is difficult enough, but plotting a blind jump inside of a sentient being that is still gaining form?! Besides, even with protective shields, direct exposure to that much Dark Energon will debilitate you all, and render each of the Gundams completely inoperable, never mind what it will do to the pilots inside of them! None of you have built up an immunity to the substance like Galvatron and Le Creuset have."_

"Yet another strong argument for soliciting our guidance," Galvatron pointed out.

"You can provide Unicron's exact coordinates," Optimus asked, seeking clarification to make sure that he was not misunderstanding or missing anything that the two madmen were offering.

"Oh we can do even better than that," Le Creuset practically boasted. "If you transport us to the Earth's core, which Unicron is slowly converting into his spark chamber even as we speak, we can lead you directly into Unicron's spark. The very heart of his darkness."

Such an offer was extremely tempting, even when considering who was giving the offer, and none of the defenders of Earth could deny that they were having a hard time not at least considering the option, but there was still one last detail that needed to be addressed. "Even if we survive this insane jump, how the Pitts are we supposed to shut down Unicron and expel him from Earth," Wheeljack asked.

Optimus hesitated for a moment, because, despite the fact that Galvatron and Le Creuset had already implied as such, he could only think of one answer to such a question, and it was just as much a great risk to use as it was their best hope. After seeing Galvatron nod in confirmation, almost as though his former friend knew what he was thinking, Optimus finally replied, "With the Matrix of Leadership."

 _"As in the same Matrix of Leadership that holds the collective wisdom of the Primes,"_ Natarle asked through the comm. links. _"How exactly is that supposed to stop Unicron and save Earth?"_

"It was the combined power of the Primes that defeated Unicron so long ago, and it is the very reason that he now seeks to destroy you, Optimus," Galvatron revealed.

"It would follow that unleashing the power of the Matrix directly into Unicron's spark would return him to stasis and purge his darkness from the Earth like the disease that it is," Optimus immediately reasoned in addition to Galvatron's words.

"So basically, if we use the Matrix on Unicron's spark, we'll basically kill Unicron again and Earth will be cured of its awful case of Unicron-syndrome," Lunamaria asked, hoping that she had heard right.

"Exactly," Crosshairs confirmed with a nod. "After all, he's not the Earth's core, he's just in it."

"Crosshairs is correct," Ultra Magnus further clarified. "But there is also a chance that if we do not move swiftly enough, that will change, and Earth will eventually be forced to having to rely upon Unicron in order to exist."

"Then there isn't much time to lose," Athrun reasoned.

Everyone was about to add further agreement or argument to the debate when the rocks that had once formed the titan version of Unicron's various stone manifestations suddenly started rolling towards the pile of rubble and then coalescing together to form not one, not two, but three more of the very same versions of said vessels, much to everyone's horror. With no time to think, Optimus quickly tapped his comm. link and cried out, "Ratchet, send a Ground Bridge!"

The minute the green vortex appeared next to them, Cagalli was instantly acting on anger once again as she cried out, "Hold on a minute! Are we seriously opening up direct, first-class path into our base with Galvatron _and_ Le Creuset standing right there, and not only that, but we're seriously supposed to believe that they'll risk their own necks just to save us?!"

"Hahahahaha! Hardly my nature, girl," Galvatron cackled in what could be considered the closest he could come to being good humor. When the shadow of the three, massive vessels finally fell over them though, Galvatron and Le Creuset both looked at them with slight grins of excitement, until Galvatron finally looked to the Autobots and Gundam pilots and said, "Consider our offer. We shall keep it busy."

Galvatron then transformed into his tank mode while Le Creuset had the Advocate Gundam blast into the sky, and the duo of darkness were quick to deal a great deal of damage to one of the manifestations much more quickly than the team of heroes and defenders had before. They only paid a small amount of attention to the Autobots and the Gundam Team as they disappeared into the Ground Bridge before it closed, but they were both confident that their offer would be accepted in due time.

* * *

"Absolutely not," Natarle shouted the minute anyone suggested that they agree to Le Creuset and Galvatron's offer once the team had returned to base. "I may be able to understand and accept the things that the _Archangel_ was forced to do in the First Bloody Valentine War, but this is another matter entirely. We can't seriously even be considering allowing those two to so much as come into the base, let alone trusting them to do as they say!"

"I'm with Natarle on this one," Jazz nodded. "Sure there's that old saying about desperate times and desperate measures, but bringing Galvatron and Le Creuset here, that's crossing the line."

"How can you even think about letting so much as one of those monsters anywhere near even one of us or these young men and women after all that they've done, especially to people like Rey and Athrun," Talia quickly added in, immediately showing her motherly instincts that tended to be directed towards those who both were and had previously been under her command.

Such voices of disapproval continued to ring out from both human and Cybertronian for quite a while, until Optimus finally waved for everyone to settle down so that he could provide his own argument to the disagreements. "They will each be closely monitored, both by the Autobots and anyone who has seen them both before, and only allowed to linger long enough to send us on our journey; not one moment more," the Last Prime stated.

"And what's going to stop them from calling in an all-out assault on the base once they have an exact fix on our base's location," Yzak pointed out.

"Yzak's right," Dearka agreed. "The 'Cons may have attacked here before, but at that time, they were just attacking New Iacon in general without knowing that this is where the base is, or even the base's exact location. How're we going to keep them from sending their forces after us the minute they learn where you live?"

"By Ground Bridging Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset here, they will be unable to get an exact fix on our coordinates," Optimus immediately replied.

Everyone looked to the other Autobots for confirmation on this, and they all quickly nodded to confirm that such a plan was sound in keeping the base's exact location secret from the Decepticons' leaders. At that point, all arguments on the matter seem to be abated for a moment, and the plan to cautiously trust their two greatest enemies was beginning to seem more and more favorable, but there was still one last thing that had to be addressed before anyone agreed to it. A question that only one person was willing to voice for everyone.

"Optimus, what'll happen after you've released the energy in the Matrix," Kira finally asked. This was a question that everyone was very worried about the answer to, and yet still desired all the same, as they were all well aware of the fact that the Matrix of Leadership was part of Optimus's being, so it would be unwise to assume that there would not be some form of risk to Optimus if he were to unleash its power in the manner that was being suggested.

"The power within the Matrix has not previously been utilized in this particular manner," Optimus stated as he turned away for a minute to think about it for a minute, but to Kira, it seemed that Optimus was hoping to avoid revealing what theories he had already formed on the subject.

This suspicion was one that Kira was quick to press on by quickly asking the Last Prime, "But you do have an idea, don't you?"

Optimus did not say anything in reply, as he knew that Kira was correct in that regard, but he did not want to trouble anyone with what he believed was most likely to happen in a best case scenario. He did not need to guess to know that such knowledge would only bring even more worry that would delay them from making a final decision on the matter, and doing so would only allow Unicron to become even stronger while accelerating the destruction of the Earth. He let all these reasons run through his processor in silence for another minute, until he finally turned to face his loyal friends and comrades once again and said, "Autobots, Gundam pilots, and all of my other friends and allies, if humankind is to be saved, I have no choice but to proceed, but you do."

Everyone instantly fell quite at this remark, each thinking over their responses to Optimus's words as they did. They all let themselves think about whatever other options that there may be, only to find that after thinking each option through for a minute, it would only end in negative way, which lead them right back to the one that was being discussed at that very moment. Eventually, as he was thinking it over, Bumblebee found his gaze locking with Kira, and then Arcee's did the same with Cagalli's, followed by Smokescreen meeting Athrun's eyes, and then every other Autobot Guardian doing the same for their respective human partner, with the remaining Autobots doing the same for every human shortly afterwards. As the Autobots and humans each looked on at one another, gauging just how worried and afraid that they each were, they all quickly found a great deal of comfort in knowing that they would all have each other's backs on matter what, and that was quickly followed by the response that they somehow knew that should be the most natural reply to Optimus's statement.

After letting the silence hang for another minute, Bulkhead finally spoke up first and said, "Well, I don't know about _all_ of humankind, but I'm willing to do it…for Shinn."

"And I'm willing to do it for Cagalli," Arcee followed up.

"For Luna," Crosshairs continued on.

"For Dearka-san," Drift stated with a kind smile.

"For Rey," Springer stated, and this continued on with each Autobot stating the names of each human that they had either become a guardian for in one way or another, or just the ones that they had become close to, all of which were gathered in that very room.

This trend continued on, until finally, only Bumblebee was left, and he finished by saying, "For all our friends here on Earth, but especially for the guy who first helped me when I made contact with humanity…for Kira."

Every single human could only look up at the Autobots with touched, and in some cases teary smiles of thanks, and they all gave a similar responses as well, showing that the feelings that the Autobots had just expressed were indeed quite mutual, and with that, it was clear that the final decision had been made. After receiving a nod of approval from everyone, Optimus returned said gesture and then walked over to the communication station to signal the persons who they would be dealing with. "Galvatron, Le Creuset, we are sending transport," Optimus reported.

 _"You can always be relied upon to listen to reason, Optimus,"_ Galvatron replied, smugly, almost as though he was rubbing the fact that they were not be able to find any other solutions in their faces.

Once the communication had ended, Fixit and Ratchet began to prepare to open the Ground Bridge, while Lacus and Cagalli led everyone other than Athrun, Kira, Mu, Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol out of the room. Of course, if they were being honest with themselves, Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey, and a few others would not deny that a small part of them actually wanted to see Galvatron and Le Creuset in person for themselves, but the fear they felt in regards to said individuals ultimately dwarfed that curiosity, so they were more than happy to hide. That did not mean that everyone wanted to hide though. "Come on! I've never seen either of them before outside of a few bad pictures. Why do we have to hide," Mayu whined her brother pushed her out of the room.

"Because they're dangerous people who could use you or any of our loved ones to get to us if they knew who we were, and I'd rather not take that risk," Shinn told his little sister as calmly as he could.

"And because both Bumblebee and I said so," Cagalli lightly snapped in addition to the Grand Destiny pilot's statement, and the blonde then joined Shinn and getting Mayu out of the room without any further complaint from the younger Asuka sibling.

It was at the very moment that everyone who was told to leave the area had gotten out of sight when the Ground Bridge finally opened up, and the Autobots and the humans who had remained behind quickly moved to stand as close to it as they could, each quickly readying arm blasters and energon pistols the minute that the two madmen stepped through the vortex in a slow, almost terrifying manner. Once they were in the base and the Ground Bridge had closed, Le Creuset climbed out of his mobile suit to reveal both himself and his new pilot suit to everyone, while also revealing that his old mask was now the same shade of purple with crimson eyes instead of white, while purple, glowing scars gave a bit of light to his face, as Galvatron looked around the area of the base he was standing in and commented, "So this is where the magic happens on Earth now."

"…Quaint," Le Creuset finally complimented after getting a reasonably good look for himself. The sound of a gun's safety being clicked off drew the masked man's attention directly to his old rival, who he was shocked to see not only alive, but also giving him the most deadly glare that the Hawk of Endymion could throw at anyone, which was only intensified when joined by the glares that the other pilots in the room were giving Le Creuset. "Well, you're looking much better than the last time we met, Mu La Flaga," Le Creuset lightly chuckled. "Though all things considered, I'd have to admit that I'd actually be a little disappointed if you really had died that day in the way that you had, because it would not have given us a chance to really settle things once and for all."

"You want to settle things between us then I'll gladly do it right now," Mu growled at his old rival.

Galvatron just chuckled at the Hawk of Endymion's declaration before he softly mused, "Humans…resilient." The Decepticon leader's optics soon found themselves laid upon each of the other Gundam pilots in the room, and he quickly added, "And despite circumstances, it is actually quite a welcome sight to see each of you four boys are still alive, Athrun Zala, Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and Nicol Almalfi."

"Try anything and we'll show you just how _glad_ we are to see you again, Bucket-head," Yzak snarled angrily. He quickly found himself cooling down a little when Dearka placed a hand on his shoulder to help keep him cool, to which Yzak nodded in thanks for.

Galvatron cast Yzak's warning off like it was nothing before he finally spoke to the last young man in the room with them and said, "And even the great Kira Yamato, the Ultimate Coordinator is here today, and it seems that he's all grown up now. I know I've told you this before, boy, but I never forget a face, even that of a human."

"Good," Kira replied, catching Galvatron off-guard for a minute. "I hope you do remember my face, because if you double-cross any of our friends, it'll be the face of the man who will make sure you rot in hell for it."

Admittedly, Galvatron and Le Creuset were a bit impressed by Kira's threat, as it showed them that Kira had indeed changed a great deal from the boy that they had last met years ago, and the masked man was quickly led to wonder if Kira was becoming the very thing he saw him as just before his apparent demise at the Ultimate Coordinator's hands. He quickly cast that notion off though, as it was really just a foolish vision brought on by a sudden bout of fear for his life, and brought his attention back to the matter at hand when Optimus ordered Ratchet and Fixit to obtain the coordinates they needed from Le Creuset and Galvatron. Of course, they actually found it a little humorous that the Autobots and Gundam pilots were keeping their weapons trained on them at all times for every step they made, but they did not ever seem to notice that Le Creuset had let one of Soundwave's small bugs slip from his hand and then obtain a bit of interesting data before returning to the masked man once again.

As Fixit and Ratchet worked with the base's guests, Optimus looked to Kira for a minute and softly asked, "Kira, may I speak with you in private for a moment?"

Kira looked to Athrun, and the minute that his childhood best friend nodded for him to go ahead, Kira agreed to speak with Optimus, and allowed the Last Prime to lead him off to the side where none of the others could hear them. "So what is it that you needed to talk to me about, Optimus," Kira finally asked once they were out of the others' sights and hearing range.

Optimus tentatively looked over his shoulder for a minute, just to make sure that no one was watching or listening to them, and then kneeled down to where he was as close to Kira's level as he could possibly be and said, "I would like to make a personal request of you, Kira. Rather, I'd like to ask if you will keep some things for me."

"Of course," Kira replied instantly, simply because he was more than happy to do anything that Optimus would ask him to, especially if Optimus was as cautious and serious about the matter as he seemed to be right at that moment. "What are they?"

Optimus nodded in thanks to Kira and then said, "I would like you to look after the Star Saber for me. I fear that it will be of no use in the battle we are about to face, given how great Unicron's influence will be on the area we are traveling to, and I also ask that if you ever believe it to be absolutely necessary, that you will use it in my stead, but only in such an instance."

Kira was surprised to hear Optimus say that he was not going to bring his most powerful weapon with him, but after thinking about it, such an action did make sense, and just for the reason that Optimus had given, but also because if anything went wrong, Optimus did not want the weapon of Prima to fall into the hands of the Decepticons. Still, that was nothing compared to the shock at hearing Optimus giving him permission to use the legendary sword himself if he thought it was necessary, so it was a good few minutes of silence until Kira finally nodded and said, "I'd be honored. Is that all?"

"No. I would also like you to keep this safe," Optimus stated, and he then held up what appeared to be a fancy looking, blue and silver Cybertronian keycard. Said card then shifted in Optimus's fingers as he lowered his hand down to Kira, until it was small enough for Kira to be able to hold and carry in his pocket.

Looking over the card and feeling it's cool yet somehow warm and comforting, metal texture in his hand for a minute, Kira honestly had to admit that it did not seem all that impressive at first glance, but after examining it for another minute, Kira could not help but feel a great weight of responsibility in just holding the card fall over him. "What is it," Kira finally asked in silent awe after another minute.

"It is…the key to the central Space Bridge power supply," Optimus answered, but Kira could tell that Optimus had lied about that, and if Optimus Prime was lying about something, then that meant that it was even more important than he was letting on, and the only reason why he was not telling Kira what it really was would be because of who was in the next room.

Still, Kira had a feeling he would find out what it really was later on, and instead opted to ask, "Well shouldn't Ultra Magnus, Bumblebee, or Ratchet have this instead?"

"Perhaps," Optimus conceded. "But I have been greatly impressed by how much you have matured and grown since we first met all those years ago, my friend. As such, I feel you have more than earned the responsibility of safeguarding this important device until I return."

Kira's eyes widened a little at hearing this, because to hear such words from Optimus was not something to be taken lightly, even among his closest friends, so Kira was more than simply flattered and more than simply honored. He was honestly not sure how to describe the feeling he received from Optimus. All Kira did know, was that it was a good feeling unlike anything he had ever felt before, and that feeling was instantly coupled with the determination of keeping the card in his hand safe just as Optimus had asked him, so Kira found that it was natural for him to reply, "I won't let you down. I promise."

Optimus smiled and nodded in thanks to his friend, and then stood up to return to where the others had just finished the final preparations for their departure. As Optimus was departing, Kira was quick to realize that he was close to where the others who had been told hide were waiting, as he soon heard Murrue give a quiet grunt that caught his attention. He only paid enough attention to see his former captain assure Natarle that she was fine and that it was just the baby kicking a little harder than usual, and he began to make his way back to the others just as Galvatron and Le Creuset stepped through the Ground Bridge that led to the coordinates they had provided, at Bumblebee's insistence.

"Bumblebee, Arcee, Bulkhead, and Hound, you're with me. The rest of you are to remain here to aid in averting whatever other disasters strike the Earth in our absence," Optimus ordered. Just as the team was preparing to head out though, Elita One moved to stand in front of her sparkmate.

"I'm coming with you too, and don't even think about telling me it's too dangerous," Elita told Optimus with her tone just as daring as her challenge to him.

Optimus smiled and wrapped Elita in a hug before he whispered, "I would not dream of it."

The Autobots that were heading out threw one last look to their human partners and all the rest of their friends, before they finally turned and walked into the Ground Bridge with slow, yet confident strides after getting nods of encouragement from those friends. As she watched the team depart, Cagalli hummed in thought for a bit and said, "You know, it's actually kind of fitting when you think about it."

"What do you mean," Athrun asked.

"Those six were the first Autobots that the _Archangel_ had encountered and the first to take an active part in fighting alongside humanity all those years ago, so I guess it only seems right that they would be the ones to take on such an important mission now," Cagalli explained.

Everyone let the blonde's words run through their minds for a minute, and they had to admit that Cagalli was right. Everything that had happened to Earth in regards to the bonds that had been forged with their Cybertronian friends and allies had started with those six Autobots, and now, everything had come full circle, as those same six were embarking on the most dangerous mission that any of them had ever undertaken. Despite how much everyone wanted to send at least a few of the Gundam Team with them, they all knew that even if it were possible for the Gundams to function inside of Unicron, this would still be the end result.

With all this in mind, everyone had to smile a little at this fact, as they somehow knew that this was more than likely a strong sign that they would all make it through this, and even though some of them still said a few silent prayers for their safe return, they were sure that each of those Autobots would come back and succeed in their mission. At least, most of them did, for out of all his friends, Kira could not help but get an extremely bad feeling in the pit of his stomach at what would await them at the end of this task, and that feeling only grew as he ran his fingers over the keycard that Optimus had given to him.

* * *

 ** _AN: So that's a wrap on that. I will admit right now that a lot of inspiration for this chapter came from Episode 25 of Transformers Prime, and you haven't seen that episode or any of that series, sorry for the spoilers. If you have, let me make this as simple as I can, unlike in that series, Unicron is not, I repeat, NOT the Earth's core. He's just INSIDE the Earth's core, like a really bad disease that is infecting the planet. Be honest, how many of you thought that I was going to make Unicron the Earth itself? Sorry to disappoint you if that was the case, but really, Unicron's like the ultimate big bad in this story, well him and Galvatron and Le Creuset, and if I had made him the Earth's core, then he wouldn't have been able to do all that much, now would he?_**

 ** _Speaking of which, I bet your all wondering what will happen and how Unicron will even still be a threat after this mission is over. Well, I'm telling you right now that you'll just have to wait until next chapter to find out, because all will be revealed on that matter then and not a minute sooner. Also, I'm not gonna lie, but I was extremely tempted to have either Galvatron or Le Creuset say that whole "no strings on me" line that Ultron said in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but somehow, I just couldn't manage to work it in there._**

 ** _Finally, if you know what the thing Optimus gave Kira really was, please don't spoil it for everyone by saying what it is in a review, and yeah, I know what such an action seems to be indicating, but I'm not gonna say whether or not that will happen. You'll find out when the time comes, but until then, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The six Autobots traveling to Unicron's very heart find themselves having to watch their every step, as the Chaos Bringer's spark chamber is still forming and deforming around them while his power grows. As they ward off the dangers that await them, they cannot help but worry about how the others back on Earth's surface are doing, while simultaneously worrying about how likely they will succeed in all of their objectives. When Murrue suddenly goes into labor, Kira is reminded of Bumblebee's words from not so long ago, and his feelings of dread are increased when he discovers the true identity of the device that Optimus had entrusted to him. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 17: Unfortunate Success** ** _. Optimus, break through the darkness that awaits you at the center of the world!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time! Oh, and if I don't post anything before it has come and gone, Happy Thanksgiving!_**


	17. Unfortunate Success

_**AN: Well here we are at last. The final chapter in the first arc of this grand tale to end the Gundam SEED Prime series, but before anyone asks, no this is not the last chapter in the story, as the end of the chapter should make quite clear, along with the fact that we're only on chapter 17.**_

 _ **Shinn: You are going to actually let them read this thing, right? Because I don't think anyone here wants to hear you rant or ramble or whatever other word you use to describe all this forever.**_

 _ **Bumblebee: I'm actually a bit surprised at how short this chapter turned out to be in comparison to the previous one. I could've sworn that this would actually be a bit longer, given what was happening here.**_

 _ **AN: I know, same here, but the thing's written and this is how it came out, so what can you do?**_

 _ **Yzak: Don't you mean what can YOU do, since your the author and all, and the guy who can add stuff to make it longer?**_

 _ **AN:...yeah. That settles it. Not waiting for a spoiler today before hitting the button. [hits the control]**_

 _ **Yzak: Wait, what? [Gets blasted out of the room by Commander Shepard from Mass Effect]**_

 _ **AN: Thanks for that, and for coming over today, Shepard.**_

 _ **Shepard: No problem on either account, just make sure that you keep your promise to do a story for my series in the future.**_

 _ **AN: Because otherwise I won't be very paragon, right? [rim tone]**_

 _ **Shepard: Very funny.**_

 _ **AN: Well, in all seriousness, let's roll out to the story!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Unfortunate Success**

No one on Optimus's team was sure what to expect from the inside of Unicron beyond that it would be dark, grim, and exuding a sense of death, and they were right to expect that because that was exactly how they would describe the chamber that the Ground Bridge had dropped them in was like. What they did not expect though, was that the chamber would still be in the state of incompletion that they found it in. Looking around, it was clear that the Chaos Bringer's spark chamber was still slowly forming and replacing the Earth's original core with its dark presence and nature, but the fact that it was forming at all served as a reminder that they were on a very strict time limit, and just what the stakes they were facing were. Still, it did not hide the fact that the chamber's constant shifting and changing in its creation would serve as an additional obstacle for them in their journey to Unicron's spark.

Looking to Galvatron and Le Creuset, Arcee had to scowl once again at the fact that they had to rely on their greatest enemies in order for this mission to have the strongest chance of success, even if that chance was just slightly less slim than any other option, and it was taking every ounce of restraint that she possessed to not fire a blast through Galvatron's spark and Le Creuset's cockpit. Still, she was able to keep her cool for the sake of the mission, given what was at stake, so she simply swallowed her pride and found herself asking an important question like the uneasy allies that they were. "So how long until Unicron knows that we're here," the Autobot femme asked.

Galvatron scowled a little, almost as though he were insulted by the question, until he softly growled, "Make no mistake, Autobot, he already knows we are here."

"Well that's encouraging," Bulkhead quietly moaned in worry, with Hound nodding in agreement as they all began to walk forward, with Galvatron and Le Creuset leading the way, and each Autobot keeping at least one optic on the two at all times.

They had barely gone more than a few steps before Galvatron suddenly stumbled in his stride and the Advocate seemed to freeze in its position as each gained a slight purple glow that immediately told the team that something was causing the Dark Energon in the two's systems to react for some reason. When the glow faded, they barely had time to ask what had happened before Le Creuset shouted, "We need to move, NOW!"

The next thing anyone knew, the room had begun shaking as sections of the bridge-like path they had been walking on began to collapse while sections of the walls suddenly shot out at them. Whether this was Unicron's body way of attempting to purge the team from his system or just a side effect of his spark chamber still forming, they did not care at the moment since they were in very serious danger of either falling into the massive abyss bellow or being crushed by the metal and rocks being thrown at them. The need to stay alive for each of their own reasons, selfless or otherwise, led the team to react on impulse and immediately begin running to the cave up ahead that would serve as a temporary safe zone from the chaos, whether it be just running and dodging whatever was thrown at them, or even transforming into vehicle modes, if they were able to navigate the area without any problem, such as in the case of Arcee's motorcycle mode, or Galvatron's jet mode. In some cases, the other members of the team paused to try and blast apart the metal and rocks being thrown at them with the weapons they had on them so that they could cover the rest of the team, with the main ones being Bulkhead, Hound, and, surprisingly, Le Creuset.

Eventually though, they somehow managed to slip through the chaos around them and into the cave before any of them fell into the abyss or were crushed, each none the worse for wear, much to everyone's relief. Their relief quickly vanished when they looked to the two madmen and saw that they were both panting slightly, before Le Creuset eventually managed to right his machine and said, "Unicron has most certainly sensed our presence now, and he is growing ever stronger."

Looking to Galvatron and seeing him nod in confirmation only served to put everyone more on edge than before, but they all kept silent on the matter while Le Creuset and Galvatron walked on ahead of them. Eventually though, Arcee looked to her boyfriend and asked, "How do we know Unicron isn't controlling Galvatron and Le Creuset so he can lead us all into a trap?"

"I don't think we'd really be able to tell that much of a difference, all things considered," Bumblebee lightly joked in a failed attempt to alleviate some of the tension.

Arcee rolled her eyes in good humor at Bumblebee's attempt to ease everyone's nerves, but she was immediately brought back on edge once again when Optimus finally gave an answer to her earlier question. "We do not."

That response was all the reason that Arcee and Bumblebee needed to ready both of their arm blasters for action after exchanging a small look between them, each now keeping a closer eye on the two leaders of the Decepticons than before as they proceeded, while they unknowingly found themselves joining the rest of their comrades in saying silent prayers for their friends on Earth's surface.

* * *

Back at the New Iacon Base, Ultra Magnus was finally beginning to see why Bumblebee would sometimes find his position as the Earth Division leader very stressful, as he was barely keeping up with the coordination of the Autobots that were constantly being dispatched to disaster zones across the planet with little to no rest in between, himself included. He was just thankful that they did not have to send out any of the Gundam pilots as much as the other Autobots, but it still did nothing to hide the fact that they were all being stretched incredibly thin in their efforts to keep the Earth safe in the absence of Optimus and the team he had led to Unicron's spark, or the fact that the increase in the disasters' rates of striking was only increasing with nearly every passing minute, which served as a sign that Unicron's emergence from the Earth's core, which would lead to the planet's destruction was drawing nearer and nearer by the minute, and the fact that they had no contact with anyone on the team did not help ease anyone's nerves at all.

Still, he was thankful that Ratchet was there to assist in every way that the former Autobot Chief Medical officer could, and that they had at least a few distractions in the form of joining the conversations that the humans were having every now and then, but this current line of discussion was not one that provided all that much of a distraction from the matter at all. "Are we really sure that they'll be okay," Shinn asked once again, mostly out of his concern for Bulkhead, since the large Wrecker had been a great inspiration for him. "I mean, they have to work with Galvatron and Le Creuset. That's got to ring a few warning bells."

"None of us like it any better than you do, Shinn, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and they don't get any more desperate than this," Rey reasoned with his friend.

"Still, there has to be some way that we can help them," Lunamaria argued.

"What can we do at this point, Lunamaria," Ratchet asked as he joined the conversation. "As I have already stated, the Gundams will be useless inside of Unicron's spark with their current level of shielding from Dark Energon, and there is very little that can be done in the event that Optimus fails."

"Don't you mean Optimus, Galvatron, and Rau Le Creuset," Natarle heatedly pointed out, showing her disapproval for the arrangement they had been forced to make once again.

"No one here is thrilled about the arrangement we were forced to make Commander Badgiruel, myself and Ratchet included, but there is little point in arguing over the matter after the fact," Ultra Magnus reasoned, effectively silencing all further arguments that anyone had on the matter. Ultra Magnus then sighed after a minute before he added, "Cagalli told us that the team that Optimus was leading was in fact the first six Autobots that had fought for the safety of your world, so that should show a sign of how serious they will be fighting. Furthermore, with Optimus and Galvatron together again…"

"Whoa, hold up a minute," Dearka interrupted. "Did you just say 'again'?"

"Are you telling us that Galvatron was once an Autobot," Shiho asked.

"Or are you telling us that Optimus used to be a Decepticon," Yzak practically demanded, clearly upset by the very idea that Optimus would ever sympathize with the Decepticons.

"No on either account," Ratchet immediately denied. "But there was a time when Optimus and Galvatron, or rather, Megatron as he was known then, were not sworn enemies. This is information that you should all be well aware of."

"Well we aren't," Lunamaria retorted. "I mean, where would we have heard about this?"

"From Sentinel's team or from the Decepticons probably, or at least some twisted version of it," Cagalli answered, getting everyone's attention drawn to her. "Guess some of us forgot for a minute that some of you weren't there with the rest of the _Archangel_ crew and me when Optimus told us about Cybertronian history, along with his own history with Galvatron."

"Oh yeah," Dearka nodded in light remembrance of his and the others' time with each of the respective factions of Cybertronians, and feeling a little guilty for not ever getting the full story on the war that had raged between the Autobots and Decepticons when he had the chance. "You know, I still can't believe that Optimus wasn't always a Prime and was once known as Orion Pax," the blonde then eventually added, having remembered that little detail most easily.

"I think the fact that he was once a librarian is a little harder to believe after seeing him in action so many times now," Shinn smirked in response, getting soft chuckles from everyone.

When the laughter died down though, Miriallia's face quickly became a bit contemplative, as her thoughts turned to a question she had been wondering for some time now, while simultaneously leading her to lightly scold herself for not asking said question until now. "I've actually been wondering for a while now, what was Optimus like before he became a Prime, back when he was still in his old job," the young woman asked the two Autobots before them. "I mean, you've told us what he did and a bit of his history, but you've never really said much about him as a person in those days."

"Ratchet and I have both known Optimus far longer than most of the others have, and we can say with absolute certainty that Optimus was quite different before he became a soldier or a Prime," Ultra Magnus replied.

"Different how," Flay asked in curiosity. "Was he like a party animal, or the shy kid that was too nervous to really step out of his shell and take a chance."

"No, no on either account," Ratchet quickly waved off, though he had to admit that the latter of the two suggestions the redhead made was pretty close to an accurate guess. "Optimus was actually more like…" Ratchet could not help but pause in his answer, as he was not really sure how to describe what Optimus was like back then until his eyes fell upon one particular Coordinator that was currently standing off to the side tapping something against the metal rail he was leaning against, giving him his answer in an instant. "Like Kira."

This caught everyone by surprise, and drew Kira's attention to the Autobot who had stated such a fact while everyone else's was drawn to him in slight awe of hearing this. Sure, everyone had compared Kira to Optimus a few times in the past, but to hear that they were this similar from Ratchet was another matter entirely. In the end, it mainly served to get Kira a bit embarrassed as he sheepishly chuckled, "What? Come on, I'm nothing like…"

Anyone could tell you that a number of people in the room were going to interrupt Kira before he could finish that statement, especially given how often the people in question had seen the similarities between Kira and the Last Prime, but when Ratchet's optics fell upon the object that Kira had been tapping against the rail, they immediately widened and led him to beat everyone to the punch. "Where did you get that," Ratchet gasped in silent astonishment.

Everyone was quickly confused by Ratchet's question, until Kira raised the keycard that Optimus had entrusted him with for everyone to see, and while the humans in the room only became more confused, Ultra Magnus and Fixit were both quickly wearing expressions of awe and shock that matched Ratchet's. "Optimus gave it to me," Kira told the old Autobot. "He tried to convince me that it was the key to the central Space Bridge power supply, but I think he mainly said that because of who was in the base at the time."

"You were correct in that assumption Kira, but that is much more important than a key to a Space Bridge," Ultra Magnus informed Kira.

"Then what is it," Lacus asked as she and the other girls stared at the intricate, blue and silver keycard in Kira's hand, admiring how beautiful it was as it shimmered in the light of the base.

Ratchet hesitated a little for a minute, as he wanted to be absolutely sure that the object in question what it appeared to be, but he eventually found there was no way to deny that it was what it appeared to be, so he immediately replied, "That is the key to Vector Sigma."

"The what," Athrun asked in a confusion that matched that of every human in the base.

"Kira, you are holding one of Cybertron's most important relics," Ratchet then went on to explain, leading everyone to realize that they were not likely to get an explanation as to what Vector Sigma was while also feeling the gravity of how important the object Kira was holding truly was.

Kira stared at the key for a few minutes, letting this new information he had just learned on how great the key's importance really was run through his mind, while the rest of him had frozen in shock. He could hardly believe that Optimus had not only possessed one of Cybertron's most important relics, but had gone so far as to entrust it's safety to him of all people. Kira could understand why Optimus would ask him to keep something as important as the Star Saber safe, but if Ratchet's tone and the expressions that he and the other Autobots in the room were anything to go by, this was obviously something that held far more value than the Star Saber ever could for some reason that he currently did not know.

"I…I shouldn't have this," Kira finally said when he managed to get his voice working again, and he immediately moved to give it to either Magnus or Ratchet, showing just how unworthy he thought he was to be holding this Cybertronian relic in his hands at all, no matter how much something inside him that he could not identify insisted that it was right for him to have it.

Ratchet just waved a hand in denial to show Kira that neither he nor any other Autobot would be accepting the key from the boy holding it out to him, and said, "Optimus entrusted it to you, Kira."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Kira insisted. "Why would he ask me to look after something as important as you're indicating this is?"

Ratchet already knew the answer to that question, but he was not sure it would be wise to tell everyone what that answer was, as the knowledge would only cause the worry everyone was feeling for their friends in the Earth's core to skyrocket through the roof. This was a fact that was only reinforced by the worry that Ratchet already had in him for his old friends' safety building up just as quickly, and he knew that saying the answer aloud would not help at all. Even so, not answering Kira's question would only result in the same thing while the humans would continue to pester him until he finally did answer.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you asked, Ratchet was spared the burden of answering Kira's question when Ultra Magnus realized how heavy a burden that the answer was for the old doctor with a simple glance, and the Autobot second-in-command decided to answer in Ratchet's place. "It is because Optimus doesn't believe he will be coming back."

Ratchet's thoughts on everyone's worry skyrocketing were immediately proven true, as multiple gasps of horror and worry rang out from every single human in the base, due in no small part to the fact that none of them wanted to hear such information at all. Of course, that worry was magnified by Murrue suddenly crying out in pain, almost as though hearing this information was both emotionally and physically painful for her to hear. "Calm down, Captain Ramius La Flaga," Magnus tried to reassure the woman. "There is no need to react in such a way to what may be only a worst case scenario."

Although, when everyone else looked at the former captain of the _Archangel_ and saw her clutching her stomach, they all had a sneaking suspicion that Murrue had not reacted in the way that she had because of what they had just heard, and their suspicions were immediately confirmed when Murrue said four, simple words that caused all worry for their Autobot friends that were currently inside of Unicron to be replaced by worry for something else. "The baby is coming!"

"Oh please tell me this is just another false alarm," Mu begged, as now was definitely not the best time for his kid to come into the world.

A quick scan from both Fixit and Ratchet immediately dashed all hopes, as Ratchet stated, "This is definitely no false alarm. The child is certainly coming now!"

"Oh come on! Not now, kid," Yzak practically shouted in near panic. "There's no way we can get her to a hospital right now, and even if we could, every single one is packed to the brim with victims from the disaster zones!"

The silver-haired pilot was snapped out of his frenzy when Natarle gave him a hard slap to knock him back to his senses and said, "Just calm down, Yzak. Ratchet and I can handle this."

"Wait, _you_ know how to deliver a baby, Natarle," Flay asked in honest shock, as that was not a skill that she or anyone else had expected the woman to have.

"It was part of the required material we needed to learn in medical training for the Alliance Forces, in the event that a ship or a military group had to take in refugees that were with child," Natarle explained once she had made her way over to Murrue and led her friend down to the floor where a gurney was waiting after Fixit had wheeled it into position.

"So you've never done this before in real practice," Nicol asked, his worry showing in every word.

"You don't really need to have done it if you at least know how to proceed," Natarle assured the green haired pianist before her expression turned serious. "Now stop standing around and help me get this woman to the base's human medical wing! Ratchet, I'll need you to help out with your Holo-Form. Mu, come with us. Dearka, get some water."

Natarle continued giving out what everyone could only assume were necessary orders until she and the people she asked to accompany her into the medical wing had disappeared, none of them ever noticing the look of worry that was now practically embedded onto Kira's face. The fact that Murrue's child was being born right now led Kira to remember what Bumblebee had said not too long ago about how there was an end accompanying every new beginning, and glancing at the key that Optimus had entrusted to him, Kira had to wonder if this was just one more sign that something or someone was about to meet their end soon enough.

Kira's was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Miriallia calling out to him, and he quickly looked up to see her waving him over as she called out, "Can you give me a hand? Dearka's fainted from seeing Murrue giving birth."

All thoughts of doom and gloom immediately left Kira's mind for the moment while a humorous smile managed to find a way onto his face at hearing about this, and he quickly pocketed the key to Vector Sigma before running over to his old friend to help her move her boyfriend out of the others' way so that they could focus on helping Murrue deliver her child, but that humor would soon fade once again when he felt the cool metal of the key in his pocket, and he found himself hoping against hope that any wishes for the safe return of their Autobot friends were not ones that could not be delivered.

* * *

After what had seemed like many long hours of walking through seemingly endless caverns that were fraught with traps and collapsing walls and walkways, the Autobots and their two unlikely allies came to a massive chamber that was not unlike the one they had arrived in after exiting the Ground Bridge, but there was one major difference between this one and that very first chamber: this new chamber was even further along in the completion of its forming, and there were much fewer signs of anything that could lash out at them in any way whatsoever. This was a very disturbing sight to behold, as it indicated that they were likely getting close to their final destination, and that Unicron's infection of the Earth was nearing its final stages of completion, but that was not going to shake any of the 'Bots' resolve to succeed. Instead, it merely strengthened their resolve and encouraged them to quicken their pace to their final goal.

"Unicron's power is actually rather impressive if his conversion of this part of Earth is any indication," Le Creuset commented, only to receive small glares from the Autobots in reply.

"More importantly, Unicron's spark is near," Galvatron alerted the team, confirming that their hunch on what this chamber's state was a likely sign of was actually rather accurate.

"Well then by all means, after you," Arcee waved to the two madmen as a way to show that she was not letting either of them walk behind her or any of her teammates for any longer than necessary.

Galvatron and Le Creuset did not say anything in response to Arcee's show of distrust before they began walking to the other side of the chamber they were now in, with each of the Autobots falling in step behind them, and Optimus being the one to stand closest to the two. As they walked, the team could not help but look around at the chamber they were in and take note of the various bridges that extended from one side of the chasm bellow them to the other almost like veins or pathways in a bloodstream, which given the circumstances, was not really an inaccurate assumption. After taking another glance around, Elita had to admit, "You know, despite the current circumstances, I can't help but feel like I'm living the dream of a few different doctors."

"Why's that, Elita," Hound asked.

"The chance to enter a living body and study it from the inside is something that, even among Cybertronians is not something you would be able to do outside of science fiction," Elita shrugged in reply.

Everyone had to smile in amusement of Elita's comment about her scientific curiosity, but those smiles quickly vanished when Bulkhead slightly stumbled for a minute and let out a soft groan as though he were suddenly feeling sick. "Hey, you okay, Bulkhead," Bumblebee asked his pal.

"I'm fine, Bee. Just woozy," Bulkhead admitted as he held a hand to his head for a few minutes, but his words did nothing to keep Elita from pulling out her medical scanner and running it over him, only to confirm what she was worried about.

"The Dark Energon is starting to affect him," Elita reported in worry as she stowed her scanner away.

"Well we can't really turn back or call Ratchet for a medical extraction, so we'll just have to make do for the moment," Hound reasoned, and everyone immediately nodded in agreement with him as Bumblebee and Arcee quickly moved to help guide their friend across the bridge as quickly as possible.

Optimus had only slowed his pace a little when he heard Bulkhead's groaning, but when he noticed that the rest of his team was helping their large, big-hearted Wrecker the rest of the way across, he let a hidden smile reach his face behind his battle mask, and returned to his original moving speed so that Galvatron and Le Creuset did not get too far ahead of him. Once he was within arm's reach of the being that was once Megatron, Optimus found that he had to admit that he was actually a bit happy about something in this situation. That something was the fact that he and Galvatron were actually working together again, just like they had so long ago in the twilight hours of Cybertron's golden age in an attempt to restore their home planet to the glory that it had lost with the establishment of the caste system. Sure it was only a temporary alliance, but being able to work alongside the one he had once considered to be his brother instead of against him was enough for Optimus at the moment, and this really just reinforced the idea that maybe there was still some hope for Galvatron to redeem himself at the very least.

The Last Prime was quickly stirred from his thoughts when Galvatron and Le Creuset paused in their path and then seemed to glow once again, indicating that the Dark Energon within them was reacting once again, and considering what had happened the last time, Optimus knew that would not mean anything beneficial for the team, so he immediately began to prepare himself for anything. After waiting another minute, Galvatron turned to face Optimus and warned everyone, "He is preparing to expel us."

Everyone immediately prepared themselves for more shifting walls and floors, but when that did not come, they all quickly became very confused. After waiting another minute though, the tense silence that had fallen over them was broken by the soft sound of distant buzzing and high-pitched wails, leading everyone to start scanning the area for the source as quickly as they could. When they found the source, their first thoughts were that they were about to be surrounded by Insecticons that had been resurrected through Dark Energon, as they were greeted by the sight of strange, bug like creatures flying around the room in frenzied swarm, but a closer inspection revealed that while the creatures had some insect-like qualities, they also had some strange tentacles extending from the back, and they were far too distorted to be Insecticons, even ones that were resurrected by Dark Energon.

"What in the name of Primus are these things," Hound shouted as he and the others readied their weapons for action.

"As we are within Unicron's slowly forming body, it stands to reason they are some sort of antibody," Optimus replied as he changed his left hand into a blaster while pulling out his minigun with his right.

When the antibodies came around again, they immediately made a beeline for the team that was doing everything they could to get into Unicron's spark, and no one needed more of a reason than that to start shooting, and the chamber was quickly lit up with flashes of energon blasts as the team began to fend off Unicron's antibodies. Between Hound's multiple different guns, Optimus's minigun, Galvatron's fusion cannon, the Advocate Gundam's DRAGOON system, and every other weapon that was in the possession of the warriors who were fighting to stop Unicron from within, it was actually an amazing sight that they were able to hold back the antibodies, and one would think that they would have no trouble dealing with the bug-like organisms that acted as the natural defenses for Unicron's body, especially when one considered the fact that they only seemed to fly around and charge the Autobots, Galvatron, and Le Creuset in order to attack. Such thoughts were quickly expelled when the antibodies began firing red blasts of energy bolts in retaliation.

When this switch to long-range tactics first began, the team was forced to cease fire and raise their arms in front of them in an attempt to prevent any serious damage, leading one to think that the next charge would leave the team unprepared to stop the antibodies. Optimus quickly proved this to be incorrect, as he holstered his minigun and whipped out his battle axe to slice a number of the organisms clean in two. This action was quickly followed by Arcee taking the initiative to make the next move against their attackers, by vaulting over another antibody so she could shoot it in the back. She then let the explosion of its destruction push her forward so that she could slam her fist through another antibody as she descended to one of the paths bellow, giving the team another vantage of attack the minute the fierce femme landed. Just as another squad of antibodies was about to attack her though, a group of black DRAGOONs lashed through them, prompting Arcee to turn and see that Le Creuset had been the one to just save her, much to her annoyance.

"Don't expect me to show any sign of gratitude or something," Arcee shouted over the din of weapons fire.

"I'm actually much more satisfied to hear that than I would be if you said otherwise," Le Creuset quipped in reply as he turned the Advocate's large beam rifle to another target.

Not everyone was able to react as quickly as Optimus and Arcee though, as a mere minute after Bulkhead had slammed his wrecking ball hand into a pair of antibodies, he began to feel very dizzy and the world around him became unfocused and blurry. This led to an even greater problem, as his attempts to reorient himself led him to eventually stumble off the bridge they were standing on, were he soon found himself barely hanging onto the ledge due to his usual strength fading away at an incredible speed. Bulkhead was barely able to make out anything other than the ledge he was desperately trying to hang onto, but he could have sworn he heard someone calling out to him, so that likely meant that someone had noticed his current predicament, and that was reinforced when a hand grabbed his the minute that the Wrecker lost his grip completely.

Looking up, Bulkhead's vision cleared up just enough for him to make out the black and yellow form of Bumblebee holding onto him with every ounce of strength that the young warrior could muster. "Bee, let me go," Bulkhead pleaded. "I'll only take you down with me!"

"Not happening," Bumblebee retorted. "I'm not letting a comrade go down, especially one that's also my friend!"

"Just let go, kid!"

"NO WAY, BULK! I'm not letting one of my best friends fall to his death!"

Bulkhead had to give Bumblebee a sad smile of thanks for those words, as he felt both his grip and the younger Autobot's start to falter, and he closed his eyes, awaiting the impending end just as he heard Arcee shout out to him in distress from bellow. Just as he finally slipped from Bumblebee's grasp though, he felt someone else grab his hand and start pulling him up with a bit more ease than Bumblebee had, prompting him to quickly look up and see Hound was now standing over them and helping the Autobot Earth Division's leader to pull him up while still firing at the antibodies with his other hand.

"I've got you, soldier," Hound grunted as he helped heave Bulkhead back onto the bridge with him and Bumblebee, to which Bulkhead just panted and smiled in thanks for. The three then returned to the fighting, but looking around, they saw that they did not need to do all that much.

The reason for this was because Optimus and Galvatron were bearing the worst of the storm that was raging around them, and more than that, the two were doing more than just holding their own; it almost seemed like they were winning without receiving so much as a scratch. Their weapons never once ended up being directed at one other without the person in question being able to move aside and allow the attack to hit an opponent behind them while they took out another that was behind the first, and every move they made seemed to flow with that of the other person's, almost like that of a well-coordinated fighting team. When Galvatron slammed an antibody down with his fist, Optimus was able to pull his battle axe back over the Decepticon warlord's head for a powerful swing at another two, when Optimus swung his blaster to fire in one direction, Galvatron was spinning a kick around to the other, and when Galvatron stood to his full height to fire his cannon, Optimus knelt down as he came out of a swing with his axe to fire his own arm blaster. The two continued this dance of combat around each other right to the point where they were executing the exact same attacks with their respective close-combat weapons before they ended up standing back-to-back with each other, and a simple exchange of glances between them immediately seemed to send a silent message of what their next move was going to be. It was a sight that all the Autobots and Le Creuset could only marvel at, for it was something that was truly a revived moment of history which showed just how amazing Optimus Prime and Galvatron were together, at least in terms of how they fought together on the battlefield.

Even with this spectacular display of teamwork and power from the two warriors and the rest of the team, it did little to change the overwhelming odds, so the group was soon left with only one option. "Autobots, press on! We cannot let these things hold us here forever," Optimus shouted.

"A tactical retreat to lead us closer to our goal," Galvatron mused. "An impressive tactic in and of itself, and one that I must admit that I agree with."

With those words exchanged, the team immediately began racing for the other side of the chasm as fast as they could, while the members with either the most or most powerful guns continued firing on the antibodies that were still swarming around them. When she saw her teammates taking their leave of the chamber, Arcee was quick to react by immediately jumping into the air once more, and using a few of the antibodies as stepping stones to climb her way back up to the team before blasting them apart. After using the last one as a converted transport, Arcee gracefully landed on the path in front of the others, and quickly found herself leading the charge forward alongside Le Creuset as they fired a few last shots on the antibodies behind them, hoping against hope that they were through the worst of that.

Sadly, they quickly found that such hopes were in vain, as the Chaos Bringer's defenses continued to pursue and attack them, leading the members of the team to rotate out with one and other as they fired a few shots of covering fire for the others, until they soon found themselves facing what seemed to be a dead-end. At that point, everyone was throwing out everything they could to keep the antibodies off of them, until Galvatron and Le Creuset suddenly froze once more, each grasping their heads in an attempt to block out the words that Unicron was whispering into their minds. Optimus was the first to notice this and immediately made his way over to help the two fight off Unicron's influence. His efforts did not seem to pay off though, as Galvatron suddenly threw his hand out at Optimus as if he intended to either punch the Last Prime or crush Optimus's head in his grip, but it turned out that Galvatron's sudden movement was actually an attempt to pull Optimus out of the way of another antibody before he blasted it.

"Unicron's spark lies just beyond," Galvatron announced as he indicated the wall behind them that Optimus just realized was actually a sealed doorway.

"How do we get inside," Optimus asked as he turned around again to fire on the swarm of antibodies along with the other Autobots.

"By fooling Unicron's defenses into believing we are not a threat," Le Creuset answered after he moved the Advocate Gundam to stand directly in front of the door. Galvatron then quickly assumed his tank mode so that he could provide an additional punch to his blasts as the Advocate transmitted a beam of Dark Energon into the door, and after a few minutes, the sounds of gears whirring reached their ears, and the door opened, allowing Le Creuset to walk through, with Galvatron not far behind him.

"Autobots, I will need you to keep our attackers at bay for as long as you can," Optimus shouted to his teammates.

"Don't worry Optimus, we've got this. Just go and stop Unicron before it's too late," Bumblebee assured his leader and father figure, and Optimus only spared a few last shots and a nod before he turned to run into the chamber, leaving the remaining Autobots to deal with the attackers that Optimus had told them to hold off. Once the Last Prime was through and the door had closed, Bumblebee looked to his friends and teammates and shouted, "No matter what happens, we must hold the line here, for Optimus!"

Everyone's response was to simply increase the intensity of their attacks while silently praying that they would all make it.

* * *

The mere scale of the room that housed Unicron's spark and that was once Earth's molten core was overwhelming on its own, but the minute that Optimus, Galvatron, and Le Creuset were close enough, they could just feel the power of the Chaos Bringer's spark bearing down on them as it radiated and glowed with an intensity that continued to slowly increase with each passing second, indicating just how little time was left before Earth was lost. Knowing this, Optimus quickly made his way to stand directly before Unicron's spark as he raised his hands to his chest where the Matrix was stored. His approach was soon halted when a blast of energy knocked him and his two companions to their knees, and Galvatron and Le Creuset immediately cried out in agonizing pain.

Optimus did not see what was happening to the two, but he could still hear them, and he soon felt the shadow of Galvatron's form fall over him as the Chaos Bringer forced the Decepticon warlord to raise his blade in order to strike Optimus down once and for all. He was just preparing himself for the worst, when he heard Galvatron's hand catch his sword arm just before it could be forced down on him, and soon enough, he heard Galvatron scream, "I am Galvatron, lord and master of the Decepticons, and I am commanded by no one!"

"Rau Le Creuset was once the puppet of a foolish world that was drowning in the hatred and sorrow of the desires of its people," Le Creuset then roared in addition. "But now, there are no strings on me!"

Optimus was not entirely sure what happened after he heard the two fall to their knees, but he did know that the intense quake that had erupted meant that their time was almost gone, so he made one last attempt to rise to his feet as he cried out, "Matrix of Leadership, I call upon you!"

 **"You cannot defeat me, disciple of Primus,"** Unicron's voice then rang out from behind him, prompting Optimus to finally find the strength he needed to stand up again and then turn around to see Unicron had possessed Galvatron and Le Creuset. **"I have transcended physical being. By my will alone, all upon this world shall fall into chaos before the Earth comes to its end!"**

"Not while I still function, Unicron," Optimus immediately rejected, and he then turned his attention back towards Unicron's spark. "The power of the Matrix will light our darkest hour!"

Unicron did not even get the chance to raise Galvatron and Le Creuset's weapons so that he could fire on Optimus, as the Matrix's power immediately erupted around the Last Prime in a swirl of blue energy that was unlike anything anyone had ever seen or felt before, save for Unicron when he met his end at the hands of the Original Thirteen Primes. An instant later, Optimus's chest opened to reveal the cavity that the Matrix of Leadership was held in, and a burst of blue energy immediately shot out of the matrix and directly into Unicron's spark, leading the Chaos Bringer to cry out in pain and defiance of what was happening. Optimus did not stop sending the energy of the Matrix into Unicron's spark for even a second, until he finally felt that neither the ancient relic and he had no more energy left to give, and the beam finally ceased as his chest cavity closed. The last thing Optimus heard or saw was Unicron's dark life force vanishing from the Earth's core while the Chaos Bringer roared in defiance of what had happened before he began to vanish in a flash of light, and then Optimus only smiled, knowing that he had succeeded in his mission to save the Earth and everyone on it as everything went black.

* * *

The massive earthquake that had erupted across Planet Earth had quickly caused everyone to panic, as it was even felt within the confines of the New Iacon Base, leading everyone to take cover as best as they could, with Ratchet shielding the medical station that Natarle, Mu, and Murrue were all in with his own body as Natarle did her best to help Murrue's child finally be born, and Ultra Magnus shielding everyone else who had not managed to find some form of cover. Eventually though, they could all feel the quakes dying down, and they all peeked out just in time to hear Fixit shouting, "Look at the monitor! There's something you should all be…fee…SEE!"

When everyone did, their eyes were greeted by the image of the Dark Energon volcano shooting a burst of the evil substance into space before it finally settled a minute later, with only normal lava being left to flow out of the massive mountain. Everyone was silent for a minute, with the exception of those who were in the medical wing, until Mayu jumped up with her fists shooting into the air as she shouted a cry of joy that was quickly joined by everyone else, for they knew this meant that their friends had succeeded in their mission. Friends were exchanging high-fives and fist-bumps, couples were grasping each other in loving embraces, and all other forms of joyous celebration and exchanges possible were given amongst the group with the only disturbance being when Murrue cried out in pain as she continued giving birth, until Ratchet brought everything to a halt with a dire warning.

"We've reestablished the link with the team, but I'm only receiving five Autobot signals," Ratchet reported.

That immediately caused all celebrations to cease, and everyone's worry from before to suddenly seem like nothing in comparison to what they were all feeling now, for they could only think of one thing that comment could mean, and it was not a good thing.

* * *

Le Creuset was the first to regain consciousness between himself and Galvatron, but the minute that his partner in crime had come around, the masked blonde did not hesitate to point out where Optimus was currently lying in a vulnerable state. For a minute, it seemed that the Last Prime was dead, but a soft groan from the indicated Prime proved otherwise, and Galvatron was not going to let this opportunity pass him by. As soon as he had readied his sword, Galvatron simply said, "Teamwork…humph!"

Le Creuset could only smirk at the fact he was about to witness the end of the Primes, but the minute Galvatron had drawn close enough and Optimus had raised his head to see who was in front of him, the Prime that Galvatron was preparing to attack asked something that threw them both for a loop. "Where are we, Megatronus?"

Galvatron had not expected Optimus to call him that and his first thought was that Optimus was toying with him in an attempt to bring his guard down, but there were two problems with that idea. The first was that Optimus would never try such an underhanded tactic, as it was just not in his nature, and the second was the tone that Optimus had used and the look in his optics quickly told Galvatron that he was being genuine in his question. Once he had recognized this, Galvatron quickly retracted his sword and extended a hand to help Optimus up, which the Last Prime did not hesitate to accept, further enforcing what Galvatron was quickly beginning to suspect. There was only one way to be sure though, and Galvatron immediately carried out that plan as he asked Optimus one simple question. "Don't you remember, old friend?"

Optimus's battle mask immediately retracted to reveal a confused frown on his face as he stuttered, "No, I…I can't seem to remember anything from…" When he noticed the Advocate Gundam, Optimus then asked, "Who is that?"

"He is a valuable new ally of ours," Galvatron immediately replied, but before he could go any further into detail, a number of explosions grabbed their attention just in time for the three to see the other Autobots blasting the door open.

"Optimus, are you okay," Hound called out, but he was completely unprepared for what his leader would say in response.

"Why did he call me that," Optimus asked Galvatron in honest confusion.

"What did you do to him," Elita demanded in a low, threatening growl that she rarely used outside of situations like the one they seemed to be facing, not realizing that Le Creuset was signaling for a Space Bridge.

"Who are they," Optimus then asked just before the Decepticon Space Bridge opened, and that proved to be the final thing Galvatron needed to hear to confirm what he suspected, leaving him with one, clear course of action.

"Our mortal enemies," Galvatron immediately told his old friend before he gently pushed said mech towards the Space Bridge. "We're outnumbered. Go, we'll cover you!"

An instant later, the Autobots found themselves diving in multiple directions in order to avoid the blasts that Galvatron and Le Creuset were firing at them as Optimus ran towards the Space Bridge. When he saw his leader and father figure pausing at the Space Bridge to look back at them, Bumblebee gave him a pleading look as he begged, "Optimus, don't."

Bumblebee's pleas were not granted, as Optimus's expression did not change from the blank look that lacked any recognition in his optics, and the Last Prime just turned away and ran through the Space Bridge, with Galvatron and Le Creuset following shortly after, leaving the Autobots to wallow in a sense of loss unlike anything they had ever experienced before. They did not dwell on that feeling for long though, as the room began shaking around them, and magma began bursting through the walls, immediately telling them that they had to leave before the Earth's core finished returning to its natural state. With this in mind, Bumblebee immediately requested that Ratchet send them a Ground Bridge, and the medic was happy to grant said request, but that happiness would not last for much longer.

* * *

Everyone at the New Iacon Base other than Mu, Murrue, and Natarle was waiting at the Ground Bridge with baited breath for the team to return ever since Ratchet had reported only detecting five out of the six Autobot signals, so when the team finally walked through the portal, despite the fact they were hanging their heads in despair and shame, they were all greatly relieved to see they were alright. At least they were until Kira finally asked, "Where's Optimus? Is he…?"

"Dead, no," Arcee replied, but her tone did not hold any joy in the matter. "But I think this may be much worse than that."

"He looked right at us, and didn't have even the slightest amount of recognition in his optics. Didn't even know his own name," Bumblebee finally whispered, shocking everyone at this news, and driving Elita to fall to her knees as she began to silently sob, prompting Arcee and Ultra Magnus to immediately go to her side in an attempt to comfort her.

"But…how? What does that mean," Lacus softly asked, dreading the answer and honestly wishing she could do something to help comfort Elita.

That dread was well placed when they all heard Ratchet answer the question. "When Optimus surrendered the Matrix of Leadership, he lost more than the collective wisdom of the Primes; he lost his own memories."

Everyone fell into a sad silence at hearing this, each silently admitting that Arcee was right to say that this was much worse than Optimus being dead, because the fact that Optimus had lost his memories had allowed Galvatron to trick the brave, loyal, and kind leader of the Autobots into joining the Decepticon ranks, which meant that they all now had to face the possibility of fighting Optimus as an enemy, and without knowing the exact extent of Optimus's memory loss, they all saw little chance of being able to restore his memories to him. The silent sadness they all felt was quickly washed away when they suddenly heard a soft crying coming from another room, and they all turned to see Natarle enter the room with a smile on her face.

"I know this is probably not the best time, given the circumstances, but there's someone you should all come and see," Natarle softly informed everyone, her smile not once leaving her face as she spoke and then turned to lead them to where she had just come from.

Everyone exchanged unsure glances for a few moments before Kira and Lacus finally led them in following Natarle to the human medical wing of the New Iacon Base, and when they arrived, all sense of sadness they had previously felt was washed away at the beautiful sight before them. There, lying in a bed with Mu standing next to her, lay a very tired yet happy looking Murrue as she smiled at the child that was currently cradled in her arms. When she glanced up and saw everyone standing in the door, she immediately waved them over so that they could see better, and the sight before them all brought a smile to their faces when they got a better look at the baby that had a tuft of dark brown hair and blue eyes that shone a lot like that of the child's father's did.

"Everyone, meet the newest addition to the La Flaga family: our little boy, Caleb La Flaga," Murrue softy announced, immediately getting soft coos of how cute the baby boy looked from all the girls, along with smiles of joy from each of the boys, while the Autobots just looked on in happiness at the new life that had been born today.

A minute after everyone had gathered around, Mu looked over to Kira and smiled before he walked over to stand next to his young friend. "Congratulations, Mu," Kira said to the older blonde as soon as Mu had situated himself next to him.

"Thanks kid, though I can't help but get the feeling that my claim to be able to make the impossible possible may be put to its greatest test soon enough," Mu joked in reply, getting a small bout of laughter out of them both. Mu's face then turned serious as he looked at Kira and said, "Hey Kira, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and it's made me realize that I've actually come to rely on you quite a bit over the years, not just as a fellow pilot, but also as a friend. You've had my back in more ways than one, and I'm grateful for that, so that's why I would like to ask you if you would be my son's godfather."

Kira immediately spun to face Mu with wide eyes, having not expected to hear that from the new father, and could not help but ask, "Me? Really?"

"Yes, you," Mu reaffirmed. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have as my son's godfather."

Kira was silent at this, but he eventually smiled and replied, "I would be honored."

The two smiled at each other once more before they turned back to the sight of the new mother and her child before them, each knowing that the Autobots were smiling just as brightly at the sight of the new life that had now been born into the world. Such happiness would not last forever, they all knew that, but right then, at least for the moment, they were happy just letting this small light illuminate their lives, as it showed them that there was still hope for the future.

* * *

When Galvatron and Le Creuset finally returned to Chaar, they received the usual bow of greeting from their Decepticon followers, along with a slightly reluctant one from Predaking and his brethren, but those bows quickly turned into shock when they saw Optimus Prime enter the room right behind them. None of them knew what to think, as it seemed that their leaders had just allowed the Autobot leader into their base, but eventually, Quicksilver and Predaking shook them all out of their shock when they moved to engage the Prime. At least they were about to, until Galvatron signaled for them to stop.

"At ease Predaking and Quicksilver. That is no way to welcome a long-lost comrade," Galvatron stated with the barest hint of a smile on his face. He then turned to the red and blue Autobot that the Decepticons had all come to know as their enemy and announced, "Orion Pax is one of us."

Now everyone was beyond confused, until Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream put the pieces together and each greeted Orion Pax as though they were welcoming him back from a long journey, prompting the remaining Decepticons to do the same a minute later. Once the exchange of greetings was finished, Galvatron told Shockwave and Knockout to take Orion to the medical lab so that they could repair any injuries he had sustained and so that they could replace the Autobot sigils on his shoulders with that of the Decepticons' before he and Le Creuset departed for their private chambers, only taking small notice of Starscream's devious smirk from the corner of their eyes as they departed. When they arrived in the chamber, Galvatron and Le Creuset each took a knee as the room was lit up with dark purple fires erupted around them, leading them both to smirk as the former reported, "The first stage of the plans have succeeded far beyond our original hopes, Master Unicron."

 **"Yes,"** Unicron's voice growled with joy. **"Thanks to the foolish efforts of Primus's last disciple, I am now freed from the prison that I had been trapped in for so long. He may have saved his precious Earth, but in doing so, he has unknowingly released my essence so that it may return to my empty shell. However, I sense that you have other news to report."**

"Indeed we do," Le Creuset smirked in reply. "It seems that relinquishing the Matrix's power has caused Optimus Prime's memories to all be erased, and he has been reverted to the being he was before he was a Prime."

"Lord Unicron, if I may, we have already welcomed Orion Pax into our ranks, leading him to believe that the Autobots are just as much his sworn enemies as they are ours. While he does not possess any combat abilities any longer, his skills and abilities as an archivist are still very much intact, and would be instrumental in accelerating our progress for Phase Two," Galvatron stated.

Unicron was silent for a moment until he finally let out a demonic laugh and said, **"The last disciple of Primus, completely unaware of who he truly is and aiding in my return. The irony alone is enough to bring great joy even to me. Do what you think is best, but keep a close eye on him to ensure that he does not realize the truth too soon. Also, I think it would be wise to consider bringing the alliance with the Predacons who follow Predaking to an end sometime soon, for they have almost outlived their usefulness."**

"As you wish, master," the two madmen replied with a bow of their heads, and Unicron's presence soon vanished, leaving the two alone in the room with only sinister grins on their faces to keep them company, showing that the worst was still yet to come.

* * *

 ** _AN: Admit it, I had you all going for a minute there, didn't I? You all really thought I had killed off Optimus for a minute there, didn't you? Don't deny it, you forgot about how I have stated that I will never kill off Optimus Prime in any of my stories unless he's already dead at the beginning of them, or is implied to be. But on a more serious note, yes, the whole expelling Unicron from Earth's core thing, and Galvatron and Le Creuset's little bit about them being forced to serve Unicron was all a great big set-up so that the greatest evil in Transformers history could become even more powerful, basically meaning that even in the slightest amount of victory our heroes can't seem to win._**

 ** _Jazz: I feel like we got punked this time in a major way._**

 ** _Dearka: Maybe that's because we DID get punked. By Galvatron, Le Creuset, and Unicron._**

 ** _Nicol: Hey, can I ask a question please?_**

 ** _AN: Sure Nicol._**

 ** _Nicol: How much longer are we going to have to wait until Starscream finally makes his move, and what's going to eventually happen to Predaking and his brethren when Galvatron and Le Creuset betray them?_**

 ** _AN: Excellent questions, my fine, green haired friend. I cannot answer the latter of those two though, for obvious reasons (THEY IS SPOILERS!), but in answer to your second one, give it a couple more chapters or so, and you'll find out._**

 ** _Arcee: And let's not forget about Optimus being reverted into Orion Pax. Question, why didn't he remember Elita One? I'd have thought he would recognize her easily, seeing as she's his sparkmate and all._**

 ** _AN: It's mostly due to the fact that as Orion Pax, he knew her as Ariel, and as I have stated in the past, in this continuity, Ariel was actually converted into Elita One after she received serious injuries, much like in the G1 continuity, so naturally Orion Pax would have a hard time recognizing her right away, especially in the situation he had found himself in at that time. Now if there's nothing else to deal with, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The loss of Optimus Prime has caused the team to fall into disarray, and it's not long until the rest of Earth and Cybertron discovers the fate of the Autobot leader. As the Autobots begin to fall apart, Kira and the others discover a way to restore Orion Pax to the hero he once was, and thus the gateway to a new mission is opened, and an old legacy is granted new wings. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 18: The Next Voyage** ** _. Prepare for the unveiling of the newest member of a grand legend Autobots and Gundam pilots!_**

 ** _Sounds pretty exciting huh? Well just a little heads-up for you all, I may or may not be able to post anything else for this story or others for a while, you know, holiday season and all, but I will try my best to post something for this story or Shield of the Cosmic Era as soon as I can, so keep an eye out for that, until then though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	18. The Next Voyage

_**AN: Well whadya know? I did manage to get another chapter of this story done before getting completely pulled away from writing for the holidays. I honestly surprise myself sometimes, but I feel I must apologize for the length of this chapter, as I was expecting it to be longer. I know I've said that kind of thing before, but in this case, I really feel like I have to say it here, because this is one of those cases where most people would be expecting a short chapter, given what happens here, but I guess it turned out a decent length overall.**_

 _ **Oh, and on a side note, if you jump over to my profile, you'll see that there's a new addition to the info about my ideas for future projects, and I'm telling you guys right now, if you're a fan of Mass Effect, you might find it intriguing.**_

 _ **Well I won't keep you all with this boring author's note for any longer than necessary, so here's the disclaimer:**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 18: The Next Voyage**

The joy of Caleb La Flaga's birth merely served to ease the sting of losing Optimus for a mere few days for the team, and once those days had passed, the pain they all felt was out in full force. Elita would spend hours on end alone in her quarters at both the base on Earth and Cybertron without ever coming out more than necessary, though no one could really blame her given her relation to Optimus, but there was really nothing any of them could do for her at the moment, given what was going on. Ultra Magnus, being one of Optimus's oldest and most loyal friends, was not really much better off, and though he tried to keep his personal feelings at bay when he was working, it still showed just how much he was hurting in his command style whether he was on a mission or he was just commanding teams from a base. The one who probably had to deal with the worst pain though, next to Elita that is, was Bumblebee, since he had long come to consider Optimus to be like a father to him, so to have such a person disappear from his life like that was naturally tearing the poor young commander apart.

It was not any better for the humans either. While the La Flagas were doing their best to keep their sorrow over losing Optimus to the 'Cons concealed for their child, it was obvious to everyone who knew them that the two were both quite upset. Of course, they were not the only ones who were trying and failing to hide their sorrow, as Waltfeld's sorrow showed through the fact that he did not really make as many different coffee brews as he normally did, and the ones he did make had a very bitter taste to it. Natarle was probably the only one of the older members of the human team to be able to effectively hide how upset she was, but that could likely have been mostly due to the fact that none of them knew that she spent much of her nights awake crying about the matter. In cases such as that of Cagalli, Lacus, and Audrey though, they had to do their best to not let their worries and sorrows show, as they knew that the world needed their leaders to remain strong in a time of need, no matter what, but there was no denying that it was a very trying matter for the young world leaders. Of course, in the case of all the others, especially Athrun, Shinn, Lunamaria, and the rest of the Gundam pilots, it was probably hardest of all, as they were all shaped into being the heroes they were by Optimus in one way or another, but especially so in one case in particular.

Out of everyone short of Elita and Bumblebee, Kira was probably feeling the worst, as he found Optimus to be one of his greatest inspirations to keep doing what he had been doing since he first boarded the Strike Gundam so many years ago. When he wanted so desperately to stop fighting so that he would not have to ever kill again, Optimus showed him that it was possible to fight without killing, and even went so far as to train him in how to fight in such a way, and more than that, Optimus was also the one who encouraged him to never give up when he and Athrun were forced to fight on opposite sides of a war. Optimus was like the great ideal that Kira always wanted to be someday, and losing Optimus in the way they had made Kira feel like someone had punched him in the gut and forced him to toss every last bite he had ever eaten in his life. The fact that Optimus had entrusted him with such important things like the Star Saber and the key to Vector Sigma, whatever that was, just served as a reminder of what he had lost. In addition to that, he kept getting the feeling that Optimus had left him the key to Vector Sigma for some purpose that he did not know, but the reason for Optimus's doing so just kept eluding him. Everyone seemed to think it was obvious, but Kira just continued to insist that there was no reason why he should have something that was clearly as important as this key was.

Of course, any hope of keeping Optimus's fate a secret from the public was nonexistent, for there was no way to keep such an important matter secret from anyone, ever. Given how often people saw Autobots not acting like their usual, heroic and kind selves, it was only a matter of time until someone pieced the clues together, and Cagalli and Audrey ended up having to hold a press conference to attempt to keep the people calm while confirming the current fate of Optimus Prime. Thankfully, it did not lead to riots in the streets, mass panic, and hysteria among the people, but it was obvious to everyone that the people of Cybertron and Earth were more than worried about what losing Optimus to the Decepticons like this would mean for them all. Still, the concern that was felt by the general populace only increased the sorrow and worries of the heroes that defended the two worlds.

The latest evidence of this was most apparent when Grimlock came into the base one day and accidentally tripped over something that sent him crashing down into one of Ratchet's workbenches, startling everyone from their thoughts at that time. When the Dinobot leader managed to sit up, he only glanced around for a minute before his optics found Hound, and immediately pointed at the Wrecker as he childishly proclaimed, "Him did it."

Everyone was well aware that what would soon follow was Ratchet's usual response to someone breaking any of his equipment, but when the old medic did not say anything, everyone looked up in slight surprise to see that Ratchet did not even seem to notice. "Uh Ratchet," Waltfeld called out, hoping to get the medic's attention.

"What," Ratchet asked in surprise before his optics found the remains of the workbench that Grimlock had smashed. "Oh yes. Don't worry about it."

"Okay, now you guys are really starting to worry me," Dearka commented. "Look, it's not like Optimus is dead. We can still get him back."

"And how're we supposed to do that," Bulkhead demanded, anger showing in his voice.

"Simple," Yzak snapped as he started stomping towards the hangar that the Gundams were currently in. "We go to the Decepticon Base, break in, smash our way through anyone in our way, and then give Optimus a hard hit to the head so that he comes back to his senses."

Shiho was quick to cut Yzak off before he could get any further to his destination, but the silver haired man was not willing to listen to anyone at the moment, until Ultra Magnus grabbed his attention. "Even if that were a sound plan, we cannot make any attempts at an attack on the Decepticon base if we do not even know its location."

"Not only that, but restoring Optimus's memory is not as simple as inflicting a sudden shock to him," Ratchet then picked up, getting everyone's attention onto him. "When Optimus released the wisdom contained within the Matrix, he did not lose all of his memories, but enough memories to revert his mind back into its Pre-Prime state."

"So Optimus is still a Prime, but he doesn't know that he is," Mayu reasoned.

"Exactly," Ratchet nodded. "The only way to restore Optimus's mind to what it originally was, we would have to restore the information that the Matrix had lost."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that," Rey asked.

" **We** aren't. There's only one person who can do that, and that's him," Ultra Magnus corrected, and his optics immediately found themselves directed in Kira's direction, with the eyes and optics of everyone else following shortly after.

"Me," Kira asked in confusion. "How am I supposed to restore the Matrix?"

"You've been holding the answer to that ever since Optimus entrusted you to watch over the key to Vector Sigma, and the key to his contingency plan," Ratchet explained.

"Hold up! Before we go any further, you still need to explain to us just what Vector Sigma even is," Cagalli pointed out.

Ratchet shrugged in recognition of Cagalli's point, and immediately went on to explain, "Vector Sigma is the repository of the wisdom of the Primes."

"You mean that it's some Cybertronian supercomputer that we can get Optimus's memories from before downloading them back into him," Shinn asked.

"You're close, Shinn, but in reality, Vector Sigma is more than a supercomputer," Ratchet continued. "It is an ancient source of mystical power on Cybertron, and is said to have chronicled every last bit of information as it has happened in a way that even Alpha Trion could never have managed. It has long been shrouded in legend and myth, with many believing that it does not even exist; however, a select few, namely the Primes, or those chosen by a Prime know that it is real, and are able to both locate and reach it."

"So are you saying that since Optimus gave the key to Kira, then he's like an honorary Prime," Lunamaria gasped in slight shock.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Athrun shrugged in a nonchalant manner. After thinking for a minute, everyone other than Kira had to nod in agreement with the Infinite Justice pilot's statement.

"More importantly, Kira is now the only one truly capable of returning Optimus to the Autobot we knew," Ultra Magnus stated. "All of which is moot since we do not know the location of the Decepticon base, or even if Optimus is there."

Everyone fell silent at this news, either from the shock that this news had brought them, or due to the fact that they did have a way of getting Optimus back to his old self, even though they had no way of carrying it out since they still did not know where the Decepticon base was located, or even if there was only one base. Everyone knew that it made a good deal of sense for Galvatron to have more than one base, or even to use his warship, the _Nemesis_ as his base as he had done in the past, but no matter what the case was, everyone was still just glad that they now had a little bit of hope to getting back the last Prime. Though some of them were a bit more hesitant on the matter than others.

Kira was honestly stunned to think that Optimus would entrust him with something so important as this, especially since he felt that a number of the other Autobots were probably better suited to the task than he was, and the fact that he was entrusted with such an important matter was extremely overwhelming to him. Optimus had entrusted him to possibly restore the last Prime to the Autobot that they had all come to know, and that was not something that Kira was sure he would be able to handle. Despite everyone insisting there was more to him than meets the eye, Kira was still uncertain about how worthy he was for something like what Optimus had entrusted him with, and all this new information was only making it more difficult for Kira to process Optimus's reasons. In the end, the revelations he received only served to have Kira say that he needed to get some air before quickly leaving the base, drawing looks of concern from everyone present.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Orion Pax was a bit put off by his new surroundings, to put it mildly. He had no real reason to distrust the word of his brother-like figure, Megatronus, or Galvatron, as he now insisted on being called, but there was just something about the dark, twisted hallways of the base on Chaar that made the former archivist feel uneasy. It was a feeling that he could only associate with how having the emblem on his shoulders re-modified to the horned, angry looking symbol that they were now, as somehow, the kind-looking face that they were before somehow felt a little more natural to him. Nevertheless, Knockout insisted that being back on the "winning team" meant that it was only natural for him to bear the mark now, so Orion just nodded and accepted it as it was, at least for the moment. That did not help him to ignore the strange looks he received as he traveled through the base every now and then from a number of the Decepticons, almost as though they were unsure of him or expecting him to suddenly attack them in a surprise attack, which was silly to say the least since Orion knew he was no warrior, not like Galvatron or Starscream anyways.

That was another thing that threw him off: the name that Galvatron's forces used for their group. While the former gladiator had assured him that it was a name that the Autobots had given them in order to sow distrust and fear from others, and that they merely used it as a way of saying that they would wear it proudly if being deceitful meant revealing the truth, Orion still could not help but feel as though the name was not as unintentional as Galvatron made it out to be. To him, a name like that did not indicate something that was only used to aide in harming political standpoints, but this was not a thought that he was willing to voice just yet, as he could not simply act based on feelings alone. That was what had caused him to be lost to the Decepticons in the first place, according to Galvatron.

The only thing that Orion was more wary of than the name of the organization that he was apparently a long-lost member of was the massive beings that Shockwave had told him were actually reanimated Predacons. Orion was a bit horrified at first, due to the fact that it seemed that Galvatron was disgracing the dead in this way, but after it was explained that Predaking and his kind were not the original Predacons, but clones created from the fossilized remains of the ancient beasts, he found himself relaxing a little more. Still, it did not help him to ease any discomfort he felt from the strange looks that Predaking would send his way when the Predacon leader thought that Orion was not looking. It was not like the strange glances and stares that the other Decepticons gave him, but it was also not something that Orion was able to identify either, and that alone was enough to put him on edge whenever he and Predaking were in the same room. Still, some would think that it was surprising that Orion was more on edge around the Predacons than he was about the organics that they were aligned with.

In truth, Orion was actually a bit undecided when it came to Rau Le Creuset and his army of human clones. He did not mistrust the man, as he seemed to hold a similar aura to that of Galvatron's, but at the same time, there was still something he found rather disturbing about the masked man that he could not identify. When he decided to sleep on it one day, he found himself tossing and turning in his stasis sleep as Le Creuset's laughter echoed in his mind while a voice he did not recognize cried out in defiance of the masked man's words. In truth, Orion felt that the person standing against their ally should not be someone that he paid any mind to, but there was no denying that something about this person's voice was familiar in a comforting way to him, something that he could only associate with others like his old mentor, Alpha Trion.

Such thoughts and concerns did not matter at the moment, as he put it all out of his processor so that he could focus on the reason why his old friend had summoned him to this lab that he was told had been set aside for him specifically, though for what purpose, no one other than Galvatron seemed to know. That purpose would soon be made clear to him, as Orion finally arrived in the computer lab that Galvatron was waiting for him in along with Starscream and Soundwave. When the Decepticon leader saw Orion enter the room, he immediately adopted a large grin that seemed to put Orion on edge for some reason, and exclaimed, "Ah Orion. So glad you could join us here. How are you adjusting?"

"It is…rather difficult to be honest," Orion admitted. "I'm still having a hard time getting used to these surroundings, and I can't help but notice the number of odd looks that the others keep giving me."

"Do not worry about it too much, old friend," Galvatron reassured Orion. "I am sure that you will adjust in time, but for now, I have a very important matter that I need your assistance with. One that can be most easily and quickly accomplished with the aid of your unique skills."

"Of course Megatronus…sorry, I meant Galvatron," Orion quickly corrected.

Galvatron merely chuckled, "Were you anyone else, Orion, I would be rather…upset by that slip of the tongue." His face then gained a much more serious expression as he waved Orion over to the console that he and his two lieutenants were standing at. "Moving on to more pressing matters, we've recently discovered that there is a very interesting planetoid out there that may very well hold the key necessary for ending our war with the Autobots at last, and freeing the galaxy from their tyranny and lies. The problem is that its exact coordinates are unknown to us, for they are buried deep within the Iacon Data Archives."

"And you wish for me to decrypt that information for you," Orion filled in, having quickly caught on to what Galvatron was asking, though for some reason, he did not have any good feelings about that.

"Always so insightful," Galvatron chuckled in amusement. "I have missed having you around, Orion. No one can truly understand my thoughts as well as you can. To answer your question, yes, that is exactly what I need for you to do. It is a matter of the utmost importance, and if we do not recover this data soon, we may very well perish at the hands of the treacherous Autobots."

Orion sensed that there was something that Galvatron was not telling him almost instantly, but given what he had been told, Orion had to assume that if his old friend was not telling him something, then he probably had his reasons, so he simply nodded and moved to begin working right away. Galvatron stated that Soundwave would remain here to assist in any way that he could, while also keeping an eye on Orion as a means of easing the morale of the troops, but just before he left, Orion stopped him as he said, "Galvatron, perhaps you could answer some questions for me."

"Oh? And just what might those questions be," Galvatron asked.

"First off, I was hoping you could explain why we are aligned with Rau Le Creuset. It seems unlike you to take on an ally that seems far weaker than you," Orion reasoned. "Secondly, would you happen to know why the one called Predaking looks at me in the way that he does?"

Galvatron was a bit caught off guard by these questions, still, he was more than prepared to answer them, and swiftly replied, "Despite his appearances, Rau Le Creuset has great skills and capabilities that have proven to be quite beneficial to our cause, such as helping us to increase our numbers in ways we never would have managed without him. As for Predaking, I believe he is merely confused because of how you are merely an archivist despite your rather powerful looking appearance."

"That is another thing I wished to ask you about," Orion immediately queried. "Why do I have such armor at all when I am not a warrior?"

"It is for your protection," Galvatron explained. "You see, I knew that the Autobots would use you to get to me, so after much insistence, I convinced you to re-modify your armor so that you would be better protected against any attacks on you. If that is all, then I will leave you to your work."

Orion still had many other questions for Galvatron, but he could sense the undercurrent of his old friend's tone that stated that it would be best to leave any other questions for another time unless he wanted to get the former gladiator angry, so Orion simply nodded and turned to the computer so he could start decoding the information that they needed, allowing Galvatron and Starscream to depart. Though the thoughts of why he wore the Autobot sigil before and just who it was that he heard calling out to him in his dreams were still questions that bothered him greatly the entire time he was working, even after the doors had hissed closed behind Galvatron and Starscream.

What Orion did not know was that Galvatron and Starscream were also thinking about the archivist's sudden curiosity and questions, but while Galvatron was quick to wave it off as nothing more than Orion acting as his usual self, Starscream was quick to voice a bit more concern on the matter. "Master, if I may, shouldn't we be a little more concerned about the former Prime? Who knows what his curiosity and questioning may lead him to do," the Seeker asked, hoping that he did not incur Galvatron's wrath by asking such questions.

"Orion Pax has always held a deep sense of curiosity in matters, but so long as Shockwave and Soundwave have done their jobs correctly, it should be a great deal of time before he discovers anything beyond what we wish for him to know about the truth," Galvatron shrugged in response.

"Still, what if he has not been as easily convinced as he has led us to believe," Starscream asked, but he immediately had to jump back a little when Galvatron spun around to throw a very heated glare at him.

"Choose your next words _very_ carefully, Starscream," Galvatron warned.

Starscream of course was frightened by this threat, right to the point that he fell back onto the floor as a result, but he still needed to press on with this issue, so he quickly explained, "I-I'm just saying, his processor might be accepting what we've told him, but who's to say that his spark has as well? Th-there've already been multiple reports from the others that say he is extremely wary of us all. It shows in the way he looks around as he moves slowly throughout the base, almost like he does not quite believe anything that he is seeing or hearing."

Starscream was quick to brace himself for the beating that he was sure would soon come, but when it never came, he was surprised to see Galvatron was no longer glaring at him, but rather, just staring at him with a blank expression. "You have a valid point, Starscream," Galvatron finally commented, easing the Seeker's nerves a little. "Orion's spark is far too kind to not be a bit disturbed by some of the things he may or may not have seen here so far, and though he may no longer possess any memories of the fact he is a Prime, there is still the chance that his spark is still sympathetic to the Autobots. Such feelings would only grow with time if he is exposed to the wrong factors and information, and it would undoubtedly end poorly for us if he were to discover what we are trying to hide."

"I couldn't agree more, Lord Galvatron," Le Creuset commented as he made his presence known to the two. "But that's simply all the more reason why we can't allow him to access anything more than what we need him to. If reasoning should fail though, we should be ready to provide other incentives that will encourage him to finish the work we require of him."

Galvatron nodded in agreement of this, having already figured out what Le Creuset was suggesting, and then moved to continue on his way when Starscream stopped him once again. "What about the Predacons? Surely you've noticed that Predaking's looks in Orion Pax's direction are not what you claimed they were. He wishes to do battle with Optimus Prime, but he is trying to decide if it is worth the trouble so long as he is in his current mindset."

"Then it's a good thing that Predaking and his brethren are nearing the end of their usefulness to our cause," Galvatron replied.

"Still, they do have some uses left," Le Creuset reasoned. "For now, I think we should restrict them to certain areas of both the base and the ship, and make sure that they have no chance of being in the same room as Orion Pax at any given moment."

"Agreed," Galvatron nodded. "Now then, I believe that we should pay the Earth a small visit to show them just how hopeless their situation is without their precious Optimus Prime."

"I'll inform Ro to meet us in the briefing room with whoever you wish to send out," Le Creuset replied, and the two madmen then went their separate ways, leaving Starscream alone in the corridor.

Or at least, it seemed like he was alone, until the Seeker smirked and called out, "I take it you caught all of that?"

Out from the shadows stepped Predaking, looking rather irritated at the moment, though whether it was because of what he had just heard or because Starscream seemed to notice him there, one could not say. Such worries did not matter at the moment, as Predaking quickly went right to business and asked, "Of what concern is it to you on whether or not I heard anything that was just said?"

"Simply so that I can discover what you will do knowing that our lord and master intends to betray you," Starscream smoothly replied as though the leader of the Predacons was not glaring down at him with a fury unlike any other.

"You lie," Predaking practically roared. "Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset have promised to restore my kind to life in exchange for our services, and they have done as they said they would, while I have remained loyal to them in every decision I have made."

"Is that so," Starscream asked. "I don't seem to recall him rewarding your efforts all that well when he simply stood by and watched as the likes of Cyclops brutally wounded the pride of you and your brethren. More than that, can you really say that those Predacon drones, who are barely that much brighter than a Vehicon are really all that loyal to you? The evidence that Galvatron and Le Creuset will eventually cut all ties with you and your kind are all around you if you look hard enough, and I do mean _all_ ties."

Predaking threateningly stomped towards Starscream as he demanded, "Why should I believe you? You are just guilty for wounding my pride as Cyclops is."

"That was before I realized just how intelligent you truly were," Starscream insisted. "Really, given how you acted before you revealed your evolution to us, can you blame me for thinking you were merely a beast? Now I simply wish to help you act out of your best interests, and I'm sure you can realize that it would be in your best interests to consider any form of betrayal from our _lord and master_."

Predaking fell silent at this, as it was true that he could sense that Galvatron and Le Creuset did not seem to be entirely honest with him and his brethren as of late, but to consider what the Seeker siblings' leader was suggesting seemed a little much to him. Then again, given what had happened during the last trip to Earth, perhaps it was not as far-fetched as he thought. He and his brethren were able to have a great battle that had long been promised to them, but before they could finish it, they were forced to retreat for no apparent reason. Sure the Autobots received reinforcements, but it was not nearly enough for them to consider surrendering the battle, and yet, they did. Add in the fact that they were now having to work with someone they were once told was their enemy, and Predaking was finding it rather difficult to really believe anything at the moment, while also finding his thoughts drawn back to the words of the human he had met on Nebulous.

Starscream saw that he had the Predacon leader's mind running rampant with what he had just been told, and simply turned to leave as he left one final piece of advice to Predaking. "I'd try and figure out just what you truly wish for as quickly as possible. There's no telling how much time may or may not be left for you and your kind."

After leaving Predaking to his thoughts, Starscream made his way to the private quarters that he and Quicksilver were using to meet with the others who were sympathetic to his goals and ideals. "Well, having Optimus Prime suddenly added to the Decepticon ranks was certainly unexpected, but it has not derailed our plans in the slightest, now has it," Starscream asked as soon as the door had sealed shut behind him.

"No Master," Quicksilver replied with a smirk. "And I've intercepted all traces of your conversation with Predaking before Soundwave could pick up on it in any way possible to him or otherwise, so no one will suspect a thing about that. I must admit, I'm glad to see you are turning the Predacons to our way of thinking."

"Please," Starscream scoffed. "All I was doing was making sure that the Predacons would not stand in our way when we finally make our decision to remove Galvatron from power. Which reminds me, I think there's a certain part of our plans that we should consider moving ahead with, wouldn't you agree?"

Quicksilver immediately nodded in response and moved to a communications station he had isolated from the rest of the Decepticons' communication systems as he reported, "The message is ready to be sent out the minute that you believe it necessary sir."

"Excellent," Starscream smirked, gleefully. "I want you to send the message the minute that the team Galvatron and Le Creuset are dispatching return from their mission, so that we can cover up its transmission with that of the Space Bridge's signal."

"As you wish, Master Starscream," Quicksilver nodded in reply. The two then exchanged one last smirk in anticipation of what they were planning before Starscream finally left to attend to what duties he currently held for the moment, leaving Quicksilver to make all the necessary final adjustments to the message that they intended to send out.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

Admittedly, the suddenness of the Decepticon attack on one of Earth's energon mines was rather unexpected, as everyone had thought that the 'Cons would wait a little while before they made any other moves on either Earth, Cybertron, or anywhere else in the universe, but it was not so unexpected that the defenders of Earth were not ready for it, and that was why Bumblebee and Yzak were quick to lead a team to the mine where Knockout, Ro Co Zane, and a number of other Decepticons and HorseMan mobile suits were doing their best to clean the place out after they had killed the guards protecting the mine. When he saw the Autobots and Gundam pilots heading towards them, Knockout just laughed and shouted, "Aren't you missing someone?"

"We don't need Optimus here to take you guys down, and besides, Earth is primarily under my protection now, or haven't you heard about that yet," Bumblebee retorted as he and his teammates readied their weapons for action.

"More importantly, don't think that you can come onto our planet like it's your own playground, bastard," Yzak added in a snarl.

"What? After all we've been through, I'd have thought you would hold us in higher regard than that, Yzak," Slipstream commented with a wave of her hand, immediately getting a rise out of the silver haired pilot, just like she had hoped she would. The Blu Duel's first move after the female Seeker Sibling's comment was to charge in and land a powerful blow across her face, and then spin around to fire a series of blasts from one of its arm blasters and the railgun on its shoulder at whoever it could get in its crosshairs before it finally pounced on Knockout and pinned him to the ground.

"You're gonna tell me where Optimus is, or your finish is going to be the least of your worries," Yzak growled at the vain Decepticon.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Knockout smirked in reply, and a minute later, the Blu Duel was blown off of the red Decepticon with a hard hit from Breakdown. Bulkhead was the first one to react to Breakdown's attack on Yzak by racing up and meeting his old nemesis's hammer with a wrecking ball fist primed and swinging, while Bumblebee, Springer, Arcee, and Smokescreen quickly switched to firing whatever they had at the other Decepticons, which included Airachnid and Blackout in addition to Knockout and Slipstream. Ro Co Zane was more than ready to join the fight by attacking the Autobots, but a quick intervention on Lunamaria, Rey, and Nicol's parts put a stop to that line of thought as the Gundams joined the battle by making the HorseMan mobile suits their primary targets. As the fighting raged on, none of the Autobots or pilots ever noticed the Insecticons slipping past their hastily assembled defenses with several crates of energon in hand, until Yzak saw them leaving through an open Space Bridge portal.

Hoping to keep the bug-like Decepticons from getting away with the stolen energon, Yzak immediately transformed the Blu Duel into vehicle mode and put metal to the pedal as he raced after them, but unfortunately, since the Blu Duel's vehicle mode was not meant for high-speed chases, the portal closed just as Yzak had reached it, much to the silver haired pilot's frustration. He was quick to try and take his anger out on the remaining enemies, but when Knockout had received word that the Insecticons had done their part, he immediately called up another Space Bridge and led his team to their escape route, leaving the Autobots with a few parting words before he started to head that way as well. "We'll be sure to tell the big 'O' you said hello!"

Arcee and Lunamaria were not about to let the 'Cons get away that easily, and they quickly chased after them with Arcee in her motorcycle mode, and Lunamaria in the Pure Impulse's fighter jet mode. Once the two had caught up, Lunamaria immediately returned the Pure Impulse to its Gundam mode and blocked the 'Cons' path to the bridge, while Arcee leapt up and transformed in mid-air as she did a hand spring off Breakdown's back before planting her feet into Knockout's shoulders as she jumped clear of the other 'Cons. Once the two girls were side by side, they immediately readied every blaster and long range weapon that they could and took aim, giving the 'Cons a silent warning of what would happen if they made a move. That warning did little good though, as a squadron of Vehicon flyers that the team had somehow missed swooped in and fired on them, forcing the two to either take evasive action or raise their arms in some form of defense, which allowed Knockout's team the time they needed to slip through the Space Bridge.

"Get back here," Yzak shouted as the Decepticon Space Bridge vanished. "You can't run from us forever! We will get you all, no matter what it takes!"

"Yzak, calm down," Bumblebee shouted as he grabbed the Blu Duel's arm. "They're already long gone. We'll get them next time."

"Assuming there is a next time," Yzak huffed. "Or did you forget that we need at least one 'Con to tell us where their base is so that we can save Optimus."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Arcee cut in, leading everyone to see that she was looking at them with a smug look on her face like she had accomplished something to be proud of. "During the end of the fight I managed to slip a couple of tracking devices onto some of the 'Cons, so they'll be telling us where the Decepticon base is without even knowing it."

"Smart thinking, Arcee," Smokescreen praised with an excited smile on his face. "But why did you place more than one tracker on them?"

"Because if one of the trackers is discovered and then destroyed, we'll still have the other one to follow," Lunamaria explained. "How often do people really think to look for a second tracking device after discovering the first one?"

It actually made a great deal of sense to everyone, but at the moment, no one really cared about the details on how they were going to do it. All that mattered was that they were now able to find out where Optimus was so that they could finally rescue him and restore his memories. Bumblebee was just about to contact the New Iacon Base with the good news, when Fixit beat him to the punch and signaled him with news of his own. _"We just received a coded transmission of unknown origin just as the Decepticons were retreating through their Space Bridge. I think you all might want to hurry back to hear what it saps…sells…SAYS!"_

Now they were all confused. Who could have tried to contact them right then, and why would they have? Had Optimus somehow managed to regain his memories on his own and tried to send them a call for help, or was someone else trying to tell them something? They knew that they would not receive an answer to either of those questions or any of the others by standing around at the mine, though, so Bumblebee just shrugged it off and decided that it was best to have everyone gather together at the base before Fixit played the transmission for anyone before leading the team through a Ground Bridge back to the base. As they went though, they all somehow knew that there was a strong chance that this might have something to do with Optimus, and that just made them hurry back as quickly as they could, even with the Ground Bridge's speed.

* * *

After returning to base and assembling the rest of their friends and teammates, Bumblebee's group quickly explained the events of their recent battle with the Decepticons, and when they mentioned how Arcee had managed to tag two of the 'Cons with tracking devices, Fixit and Ratchet were quick to jump onto a control console to start searching for the signals, and a few seconds later, the monitor was displaying an image of the galaxy with two small dots indicating the current location of the tracers. After scanning and confirming that both signals were coming from the same planet, Ratchet and Fixit happily reported that they had determined that the distant world of Chaar was definitely the location of the Decepticon base. When Fixit went into a lengthy description of how the planet was extremely desolate and just out of the range of any scanners that the Autobots possessed, it quickly became clear why the Decepticons had chosen Chaar as the place where they set up their base. Despite the fact that the planet had a bare minimum amount of energon for the most necessary and vital purposes, it was the perfect place for a group like the 'Cons to set up shop due to how out of the way it was.

Even with the fact that they now knew where the Decepticon base was, there was still one other matter that the defenders of freedom and peace had to deal with: the transmission that they had received just as the Decepticons were retreating. After he had decoded the message and traced its origin, Fixit was proud to say that it was definitely a transmission from the Decepticon base containing the coordinates of said base, which merely acted as further confirmation of what they already knew given how the coordinates in the transmission perfectly matched up to those of the tracker signals that Arcee had planted. Everyone was more than ready to dismiss it as nothing more than unnecessary information, until Fixit revealed that there was something else in the message, and the thing that really grabbed everyone's attention was the fact that Fixit said that it was information pertaining directly to Optimus Prime's current condition.

"Why would the 'Cons want us to know anything like that about Optimus," Shinn finally asked after a brief silence, voicing the question that almost everyone was wondering.

"It could be a way to silently dare us to try and take him back, only for us to walk right into an ambush," Natarle suggested, having already begun running through the various militaristic reasons for such a message.

"Or it could be a sign that there's a traitor in the enemy camp," Talia added, having also started running through the same reasons as Natarle.

"Do you really think that there might be a traitor in the Decepticon ranks," Dearka asked.

"The Decepticons have never been a truly unified group," Ultra Magnus explained. "There's always been someone vying for power over someone else, including a few attempts by some to take over command from Galvatron back when he was Megatron."

"Of course, most of those attempts were made by Starscream, and most of them did not end well," Ironhide pointed out. "Still don't know when Screamer finally wised up and decided to fall in line with Bucket-Head's agenda, but it was definitely sometime before they first appeared here on Earth if that elaborate stunt he pulled in order to further Megatron's plans in the First Bloody Valentine War are any indication."

"Perhaps I should read out the message before we make any final assumptions on the scatter…flatter…MATTER," Fixit suggested as politely as he could. Bumblebee simply nodded towards the Mini-Con, silently telling him to read the message for them. "Your leader has reverted to his Pre-Prime state, as you may have already deduced, and has thus been going by the designation of Orion Pax," Fixit read aloud. "Beyond that, he is physically fine aside from having his Autobot sigil replaced with that of the Decepticons'."

"Oh, Prime ain't gonna like that when he gets back to normal," Jazz softly stated, knowing as well as anyone that Optimus was very proud to be an Autobot, and thus considered the Autobot sigil he wore to be of great importance.

"At this time, Galvatron has him working in one of the labs to decode a certain set of coordinates that are buried deep in the Iacon Data Archives for reasons that are unknown to me. He will be there if you wish to find and free him," Fixit then finished as though Jazz had never spoken.

"That doesn't really help us all that much," Waltfeld stated. "There could be any number of labs on that base, including the one that was used to create the Predacons, Le Creuset's clones, and all those mobile suits that they've been using. We can't just go blindly searching through each one of them until we find Optimus, especially since we don't know anything about the base's layout."

"Perhaps nothing exact," Fixit stated. "After looking through the message one last time, I discovered that copies of the various layouts of each level of the base were included, and while none of them are labeled to indicate what they are, there are a number of points that are highlighted, which would indicate various points of interest."

As he was telling them all this, Fixit had brought up an image of the blueprints he was talking about, and everyone immediately spotted the highlighted areas that Fixit had mentioned. The number of areas was not all that great, but they were still numerous and spaced out enough for one to worry about being discovered before they had located Optimus. After looking at the map for another minute though, everyone began to gain something of an idea as to what each highlighted area could or could not be, and whether or not it was likely to be where Optimus was. It may not have been all that much, but it was still a lot more than they had before, so that was all the more reason for them to begin forming a plan, with only one thing left to be concerned about.

"So what are we supposed to do? Go in there guns blazing, get Optimus out, and then bring him back here so we can load what the Matrix lost back into it and Optimus's mind," Shinn finally asked, voicing that one, final, great concern for everyone.

"Ideally, that would be the best case scenario, but that would require us to focus every last soldier and resource that our combined forces possess in order for it to succeed, and given all that has happened, such an undertaking would pose too great a risk for the near future," Ultra Magnus admitted. "If we are to succeed in retrieving Optimus, then we will more than likely have to restore the Matrix and Optimus's memories while we are onsite at the base, which would allow Optimus to join us in battle and aid in our escape."

"So what do you need me to do," Kira asked, having finally spoken up since he arrived at the base. Everyone knew that Kira was still a bit wary about being the one that had been entrusted with the key to Vector Sigma, but if his tone was anything to go by, he was more than ready to do what he could to help out, no matter how unsure he was of how worthy he was to be holding the device.

"This will need to be a two-pronged mission," Ratchet explained. "Vector Sigma's exact location is unknown to all but the Primes and those that they deem worthy to hold the key to it, so you will be doing just as much as the rest of us will be when we strike at the base."

"Our main fleet's initial assault on the base will act as a distraction for a stealth team to infiltrate the base and determine Optimus's exact location," Ultra Magnus then went on to add. "Once the stealth team has done so, they will need to extract Optimus from that location by whatever means necessary. As soon as the stealth team rejoins with the rest of us, we will more than likely be forced to hold off the enemy until Kira arrives with a fully loaded copy of the Matrix, which he will then deliver directly to Optimus after using a Space Bridge to reach us."

"Is it even safe to use a Space Bridge without a ship," Mu asked. He may not know all that much about Cybertronian technology, but given how they had always traveled a Space Bridge in a ship, it was not unreasonable to wonder about such things.

"We've seen the Decepticons use their Space Bridge without using a ship plenty of times already, so why should it be any different for us," Yzak pointed out.

"Theoretically it is possible to do so, but we would have to make some heavy modifications to a Ground Bridge platform in order for it to work," Banagher stated. "We could probably use the schematics of the miniaturized Space Bridge as a starting point, but even then, we'll likely only have enough time to complete it for one ship."

"Then I'd suggest that you start working on making the modifications to the _Omega III_ 's Ground Bridge as soon as possible," Bumblebee stated. "Kira and I will need it if we want to get to you guys in time to get Optimus back to his old self."

"Wait, you and I," Kira asked Bumblebee, having not expected what Bumblebee was implying.

Bumblebee looked down and smiled to his friend as he stated, "Hey, it's always been the two of us, pal. Right from the start, we've had each other's backs, so why go against that now?"

Kira stared at Bumblebee in silence for a minute before he finally returned Bumblebee's smile with a small one of his own. Bumblebee was right to say that the two of them had been through nearly everything together since they met, and after thinking about what dangers he would likely end up facing on his way to Vector Sigma, Kira could honestly say that there was no other Autobot he would rather have with him than Bumblebee, aside from Optimus of course. The two quickly brought themselves out of the moment after a couple minutes so that they could pay attention to the rest of the meeting and know who would be where in the assault on the Decepticon base.

When all assignments were finalized, Cagalli looked to Banagher, Erica, and the rest of the team that would be modifying the _Omega III_ 's Ground Bridge and said, "Let me know as soon as your work is finished. I'll want to make an announcement to the public about this. The people deserve to know that we're doing this, and it will also be the perfect opportunity to finally get things rolling for a certain matter that's been put off long enough as it is."

Everyone looked at Cagalli in confusion for a minute, until Lacus, Athrun, Erica, and Audrey all suddenly became wide-eyed as the pink-haired leader of the PLANTs asked, "You mean…you want to…"

Cagalli merely nodded in reply with an excited smile on her face, leading everyone to wonder just what they were talking about. When they asked the blonde though, Cagalli just said that they would have to wait and see before she departed with a still-stunned Athrun in tow. Everyone looked after the two for another minute before they finally shrugged and decided to let it go for now before they all began to leave as well. Before he left, Kira was stopped by Ratchet so that the medic could tell Kira one final thing.

"If you wish to find Vector Sigma, then you must trust the key that Optimus gave you to be your guide," Ratchet informed the young pilot. "In order to do that, you will have to believe in what Optimus and the rest of us see in you, even if you don't see it yourself."

Kira looked down in uncertainty for a minute, wondering if that was even possible for him to do, until he finally looked up with determination burning in his eyes, showing that he was willing to do whatever it took to get Optimus back and nodded before he finally turned to leave, instilling Ratchet with a great deal of faith in the team's success.

* * *

The few days that Banagher and the others needed in order to complete the modifications to the _Omega III_ 's Ground Bridge seemed to pass far too slowly for everyone's liking, so when they day finally came when it was announced that all the modifications were finished and fully tested, they all agreed that it could not have come a minute sooner. What they had not expected was that Cagalli would order everyone to assemble at the New Iacon government building for a massive press conference that would cover her announcement to the world, and that they should all be decked out in their best-dressed attire. No one was going to argue with the blonde, and so a few hours later, the Autobots and their human allies were all standing before a massive crowd of people that included citizens of New Iacon and various reporters, with each human wearing their best uniform of their respective military, while Cagalli stood before a podium decked out in her usual government uniform, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves before she addressed the people that had entrusted her to be one of their leaders.

"Citizens of Earth, Cybertron, and beyond," Cagalli announced. "By now, I am sure you are all aware of the current status of the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. For those of you who are not, then I am here today to inform you that, at this very moment, Optimus is being held in the Decepticon base against his will, without even knowing it. Before you begin to panic though, I would like to inform you all of one other piece of news. We now know the location of the Decepticon base, and have thus formed a plan to free Optimus from Galvatron and Le Creuset's clutches. Sadly, we cannot devote every resource we have to this mission without leaving Earth and Cybertron vulnerable, and that is why, we will only be sending out a small fleet for this assault; one that will be comprised of five ships. Four you already know as the Z.A.F.T. warships, _Minerva_ and _Eternal_ , the Orb vessel, _Kusanagi_ , and the Autobot flagship, _Omega III_. However, the fifth and final ship, you have not known until today. The reason for this is because originally, this fifth ship was meant to be the first human starship, but in light of the recent return of the Decepticons and their formerly fallen leader, it was repurposed for missions such as this, and its development timetables were stepped up. Now I ask that you all direct your attention to the shipyard here."

When Cagalli gestured towards the shipyard that was located near the government building, everyone immediately turned just in time to see a large Ground Bridge open up to allow a familiar looking vessel to suddenly spring forth. At first glance, one would think that it was the _Archangel_ , but after getting a better look, one could tell that this was not the legendary ship from the previous two wars, even if it was still of the same class. Unlike the _Archangel_ , this ship sported a deep blue and gold paint job, as opposed to the white and grey of the original ship, and while there was still some red present in certain areas, such as on the wings of the ship, it was a bit overshadowed by the gold highlights that ran along the edges of it. All-in-all, it was a very impressive looking ship that left everyone gasping in awe of the mere sight of it.

After letting everyone get a good look at the vessel, and unnoticeably smirking at their reactions, Cagalli spoke up once again as she announced, "Though only two ships of its class had been made, it is no secret that the second ship of this class has not been remembered fondly in history. This time though, I believe that this ship will be more than able to live up to the legacy that the original has now created for it. And so, it is with great honor and pride that I now present to you all the third ship of the Archangel-Class: the _Seraphim_!"

As soon as Cagalli had identified this new ship, everyone immediately broke into applause, clearly showing how much seeing a new Archangel-Class ship raised everyone's hopes and spirits, and that applause was not limited to just the audience of reporters and civilians of the world, as the Autobots, Gundam pilots, and their other various allies were also applauding in excitement as well. Once the applause had died down, Cagalli called all attention back to her, as she finished her speech. "I know that many of you may be expecting someone like Murrue Ramius La Flaga to be given command of this ship, but at this point in time, I couldn't even dream of thinking about asking Mrs. La Flaga to fly off on such a dangerous mission, given that she has recently given birth. Even if that wasn't the case I still wouldn't be assigning this ship to Murrue's command. Her ship is the _Archangel_ , and that will never change, but I will be giving command of the vessel to someone who knows the ship as well as she does. This person has served as the SIC of the _Archangel_ in both the First Bloody Valentine War and the Terrible Autobot Civil War, and also served as the CO of the _Dominion_ , and given her service record, I can think of no better person to assign to this command. Ladies and gentlemen, join me in congratulating the captain of the _Seraphim_ on her newest command, Captain Natarle Badgiruel!"

A massive applause broke out from everyone as they all looked to Natarle, who, shockingly, could only stare at the young blonde in surprise at this announcement. Natarle had long since known that it was only a matter of time until she received her own command in the Orb Forces, but she never expected that command to be for this, and given how her previous command had gone, she was not sure if she was really worthy of such an honor. This was a concern that she did not hesitate to voice once she had approached Cagalli at the podium. "Are you sure about this, Cagalli," Natarle quietly asked.

"I've never been more," Cagalli nodded. "You've more than earned this Natarle, everyone one of us who knows you can all agree on that, and I can't think of anyone better to sit in the command chair of that ship than you, barring Miss Murrue of course."

Natarle had to give a small smile in response to that little bit of a joke at the end there, and then immediately stood at attention with a proud salute to Cagalli as she stated, "I won't let you down, ma'am."

"I know you won't," Cagalli replied as she returned the salute with one of her own, and with that, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause once more, showing how strong the people's faith in the people that would be undertaking this mission was.

* * *

A few hours after the ceremony had ended, everyone who was not on one of the five ships was gathered in the New Iacon Base's launch bay for the Mass Accelerator so that they could see Kira and Bumblebee's small transport off. The plan was for the two of them to launch unnoticed by anyone other than the five ships and the people who knew the full extent of Optimus's current condition, and once they were well out of Earth's orbit, they would set off for an isolated area of Cybertron before setting out to locate Vector Sigma on foot, or in vehicle mode as the case would more than likely be. As they all watched Kira and Bumblebee prepare to board their transport, Lacus could not help but notice that the Strike Freedom was carrying the Star Saber on its back.

"Why are you bringing that with you, Kira," Lacus asked after she had pointed it out to everyone else.

Kira glanced at the sword for a moment, remembering the words Optimus had spoken to him before he had departed for the mission that had led to this situation, until he finally replied, "Optimus asked me to look after it and to use the sword in his place should I believe that it was necessary, and I think that this situation definitely fits that description."

Lacus looked Kira in the eye, searching for any signs of doubt or hesitance that may still be lingering, and upon finding none, she smiled her radiant smile that Kira loved so much before she wrapped him in a tight embrace and kissed him full on the lips. This action was one that Kira was quick to respond to in kind, as he returned his loving wife's kiss with every inch of passion he could give at that moment, until they finally parted and Lacus managed to whisper, "Please be careful and come back to me."

"I always have, and I always will, Lacus. I promise," Kira whispered in return, and he then slowly backed away onto the boarding ramp along with Bumblebee. Just before the door to seal the ramp closed, Kira gave Lacus one last loving look and said, "I love you."

Lacus smiled brightly at her husband's words, and simply replied, "I love you too."

With their final goodbyes now exchanged and the doors to the shuttle now closed, Kira and Bumblebee immediately raced up to the shuttle's cockpit and began all the final launch checks. Once they had completed those and reported that they were ready, Banagher reported that the other ships were already launching and that they were clear to lift off, and the duo did not hesitate for a minute before doing so. A few minutes later, the two were well into space and flying alongside the five, massive ships. They knew that there were great people aboard each vessel and that Earth would be safe under Cagalli, Yzak, and Ratchet's care, while Cybertron would be looked after by Spartan and his team, but still they could not help but worry about everyone. They put all worries aside as they watched the five ships launch into a Space Bridge that was bound for Chaar, and they quickly directed their own vessel's Space Bridge to their destination; sparking the embers for the next stage in their latest adventure the minute they had.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well that's that. Our heroes now know where the enemy makes their nest, they know what they have to do, and they're heading out to do it. In all honesty, having Bumblebee accompany Kira to Vector Sigma is really something more of a precaution than an absolute necessity like how you probably remember it being when they did something similar to this in Transformers Prime: Season 2, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to think of something that will make it so that side of the next chapter isn't so boring._**

 ** _When it came to how the team discovered the Decepticon base, that was a little tricky, as one idea was to have someone manage to get into the base in the heat of a battle, but that just seemed like something that would not end well overall, so I went with the idea of having Arcee plant trackers on some of the 'Cons. If you're wondering which 'Cons she tagged, you need only look back at the chapter and see which 'Cons she had gotten close enough to in order to plant such a device on them._**

 ** _One more thing, when I first thought of the idea for this whole trilogy, I was originally just going to leave it with all the ships from SEED that we've all seen in the past, but after I looked up some information on the_ Archangel _one day on the Gundam Wiki page, I saw a short explanation on the information for the names of the ships in that class, and immediately decided that I was going to add a third ship to the Archangel-Class ship family. I chose the name Seraphim for very simple reasons, in all honesty. The biggest one being that it sounded coolest, in my personal opinion, and it seemed like the best suited name for the ship._**

 ** _One more thing, uh-oh, someone's being all sneaky in the Decepticons. Honestly, who didn't expect Starscream to start pulling crap like this eventually, and really, who else could've sent all that stuff in a coded transmission to the Autobots? Not only that, but now the devious yet cowardly Seeker is sowing more seeds of distrust and discontent into Predaking about where his loyalties should ultimately lie. What could this mean for the Predacons in the future? Well, I know what it will mean, but I'm not telling you guys that. You know how I am with spoilers beyond what's about to follow these next three words: Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The journey that lies ahead of the teams is long hard, but neither group is willing to show even the slightest hint of weakness or fear in the face of all the danger that opposes them. As Kira and Bumblebee embark on their perilous journey to Vector Sigma, Ultra Magnus and Natarle lead the Five Ships Alliance in an attack on Chaar to keep Galvatron, Le Creuset, and their forces busy. While Arcee leads the stealth team to recover Optimus, the amnesiac Prime finds himself in a surprising conversation with Predaking that may lead him to rediscovering the truth sooner than anyone would have predicted. Other encounters arise on the battlefield, and strengths of beliefs are tested, leading one to wonder what will happen once the dust has settled. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 19: The Road to Prime** ** _. Show the might of that legendary sword when it's wielded in your hands, Strike Freedom!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	19. Road to Prime

_**AN: Ladies and gentlemen, I LIIIIIIIIIVE! Of course, if you follow any of my other stories, including the most recently posted/updated ones, then you already knew that. My point is, I'm back with this, and hoping that you all won't shoot me for being gone so long.**_

 _ **I'm really sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out, but I must confess, after spending so much time working on it, I had fallen into a motivational slump. It's not that I had trouble thinking of how to progress the story forward, that was clear as day to me, I just didn't have the motivation to write it that I once had, or it wasn't as strong as it used to be. My head was just filled to the brim with ideas for all my other stories and some new ideas to really focus on this as well as I like to be able to. But as you can see, that problem seems to have corrected itself well enough, at least to the point where I can post this new chapter, so I hope you enjoy this chapter and are ready for quite the long addition to this story, because you are all in for quite the treat. Enjoy everyone, and roll out to the story!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 19: The Road to Prime**

After a few, long, agonizing hours, the five ships that were geared up to attack the Decepticon base had emerged from the Space Bridge, and they were soon looking down on the planet of Chaar. At their current distance, the planet seemed quite barren, almost like a very large moon, but upon coming a little closer, they could see a few signs of various structures covering a large portion of the planet, and they did not need to use any scanners to know who was in those structures, or even who they belonged to. Everyone was now more than ready to get started, but Natarle requested that everyone hold back for just another moment or two so that they could confirm that at least the outside area was a close match to the layouts that they had received in the transmission that had made this mission possible, so they made sure to keep their approach slow and quiet for just a few more minutes.

"You know, when the Autobots were scanning other planets for energon sources during the war with the 'Cons, we came by this little world once, but we didn't pick anything up," Jazz commented from his post on _Omega III_.

"Guess they either didn't look hard enough or the 'Cons found it first and shielded the signal so they could set this base up," Shinn reasoned from the Grand Destiny's cockpit.

"Or they just found other planets to get energon from to bring back here to stockpile. I mean, they were raiding that Dark Energon volcano quite a bit back when it was still spewing the stuff out," Mu reminded everyone from his own machine.

"It doesn't matter at this point," Athrun cut in before anyone could suggest anything else. "Right now, all that matters is getting in there, getting Optimus out, and if possible, doing what we can to make it harder for the 'Cons to keep fighting back as strongly as they have been lately."

"Right, so the minute we confirm that the base seems to be like the message indicated it was, we send in the stealth team and then attack once we've confirmed they're inside," Lunamaria asked, making sure that she understood the plan correctly.

"No. We'll be attacking the minute we have confirmation on the base's layout," Athrun corrected. "Doing so will force the 'Cons to clear the base of most of their troops, which will make it easier for the stealth team to get inside and search the premises without being noticed."

"Seems a little risky to me," Mu commented.

"Well it's not like we have any better options at the moment. Natarle, are we good to go?"

After a few minutes of silence, the team finally received word from the _Seraphim_ 's captain, as Natarle replied, "Yes. All ships, mission is a go! Move in and open fire on the Decepticon base the minute it's in range with all main cannons!"

With that simple order, the five ships immediately started rocketing towards the Decepticon base at their maximum speeds, and as soon as they were close enough, the starry skies of Space were lit up with positron blasts, energon beams, and all other manner of weapons that the five ships possessed between them, which quickly rained down on the Decepticon base. The response they received for the initial assault was almost immediate, as the Decepticons had quickly started racing out of the shelter of their base in droves with everything between Vehicons, Predacon drones, the various combiner teams, the Decepticon recruits from other worlds, HorseMan mobile suits, and all other manner of soldier other than the two leaders of the massive army rushing to meet their enemies head on. That did not cause the five ships to hesitate in the slightest though, as they were immediately sending out their own troops to meet the 'Cons head on, with Athrun and the Infinite Justice leading the charge for the Gundam Team while Jazz took charge of the Autobots.

In no time at all, the battle of Chaar was well underway, and the Decepticons were all facing off with their Autobot adversaries in droves. In all honesty, the full scale of the Decepticon forces were rather overwhelming for the heroes, but thankfully, none of them were unfamiliar with facing overwhelming odds, and thus they were able to hold their own. There were some who wished that they had help from the groups that had stayed on Earth or Cybertron for the duration of the mission, but such doubts were quickly erased or forgotten in light of their current situation. Whether it was the Grand Destiny, the Liberator, and the Pure Impulse slashing through Vehicons and HorseMans alike with their various blades and other weapons, the Wreckers bashing and smashing apart any remaining Decimators or regular Decepticons that were foolish enough to stand in their way, it did not matter, as they were all determined to give everything they had in this battle against the Decepticons for the sake of Optimus and for the sake of all those other friends and allies who were doing whatever they could to help out.

Eventually though, they were soon facing some more personal skirmishes, such as Athrun coming face-to-face with the monstrous form of the dark energon revived Dreadwing, or Shinn and Lunamaria when they found themselves facing Stella and her fellow deceased Extendeds, or even Rey and Mu as they eventually began a face-off with Ro Co Zane and a second clone of Rau Le Creuset that they did not know, yet was clearly on the same level as Ro, but out of all of these confrontations, only one stood out more than the others, and that was the one that the Diamond Akatsuki was dealing with just after Cagalli had run her machine's arm blade through another Vehicon. After turning her machine to face her next target, Cagalli quickly found herself facing Predaking himself, and the sight of the Predacon leader immediately caused the blonde to feel a very intense rage burning up inside of her that was not unlike the one she held when she first met Kira again out in the desert during the First Bloody Valentine War.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, here, Predaking," Cagalli demanded as she charged her machine forward, her dual-beam saber ready to tear through the Predacon.

"I would ask you the same, Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala," Predaking retorted the minute he had blocked the girl's attack. He then pushed Cagalli's saber off of his weapon and attempted to retaliate with a series of powerful punches to the Diamond Akatsuki's form, only for the gold and diamond machine to block a few of those blows before capturing one of Predaking's fists in its hand, and then retaliating with a punch of its own that Predaking managed to catch.

"I'm here trying to save a friend. One that your leader has taken against his will without even knowing it! I would've thought you would recognize that Optimus isn't here because he really wants to be if you had seen him," Cagalli retorted before she finally pulled herself free of Predaking after landing a hard knee into Predaking's stomach. Cagalli then moved back a little and launched her machine's DRAGOONs at Predaking while firing her arm blasters with everything she had, creating a powerful barrage of weapons fire that rained down on the Predacon while she continued her rant. "You told me that you only care about the well-being of your fellow Predacons, but how can you still think that helping Galvatron and Le Creuset is doing that with all that has happened here?"

"I…I am simply…" Predaking tried to argue, but he found himself having a hard time giving any answer to Cagalli due to his doubts after all that he had recently seen and heard since Galvatron and Le Creuset last returned from Earth. It was not much easier to think of an answer when the person asking the question was constantly shooting at you either, but Predaking was actually grateful he could keep ahead of Cagalli's barrage.

"What? Destroying any chance your brethren have of really living? Of being more than a pair of madmen's pawns for galactic conquest and destruction," Cagalli ranted on.

This little spat did not go unnoticed by the others for very long, as some of the others soon noticed the way Cagalli was chewing out the fire-breathing, nearly-indestructible beast that had given the heroes so much trouble in the past. "Yikes, I don't think I've ever seen Cagalli so mad before," Crosshairs commented as he paused to reload one of his pistols while firing the other on anything that bore a Decepticon or Predacon sigil.

"She's not mad, Crosshairs. She's just terribly, terribly, _terribly_ disappointed," Athrun corrected. "Trust me, if she was really mad with him, she'd be doing a lot worse than this."

Eventually, Cagalli's words seemed to break through some sort of barrier that Predaking was not aware of, as he cried out in agony before firing a few blasts from his plasma cannons at near random, blowing up a smoke screen that used to distract the enraged blonde so he could escape. When the smoke finally cleared, there was no sign of Predaking anywhere, and his fellow Predacons did not seem to be fighting at their best. In fact, if one were to guess, they would even say that the Predacons who were not just mere drones were only fighting in a way that made it seem like their sparks were not really in the fight, and they were really just doing it because they had nothing better to do.

"Am I seeing things, or did the big, bad Predaking just quit the field," Springer asked from above the others as he battled it out with some of the aerial 'Cons in his helicopter mode alongside Drift and the Aerialbots.

"Doesn't matter," Waltfeld snapped from his Gaia. "Right now, all that means is that we've got one less Decepticon heavy-hitter to deal with."

"But if he's heading back into the base, that could mean trouble for the stealth team," DaCosta pointed out from his position on the _Eternal_ 's bridge.

"We can't do anything about that now," Talia argued as her ship fired another round from the Tannhäuser while sending up a missile barrage that kept a squadron of Vehicon flyers and HorseMan mobile suits from reaching them or the _Kusanagi_. "We just need to hold out until the stealth team has completed their mission."

"Agreed," Natarle nodded a second later. "All units, keep up your assault, and don't stop for anything short of being out of ammo or being killed. We are not letting the Decepticons keep their servos on Optimus for so much as one second of another day after today! We will succeed!"

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

Far away from the Chaar, Bumblebee and Kira had landed on the Transformer home world so that they could begin their search for Vector Sigma, and the minute they arrived, they were greeted by Spartan, who had taken over the duty of acting as the commander of Cybertron's defense forces in the absence of Ironhide, who was currently overseeing the operations for the Autobot Earth Division. Spartan was quick to explain that he was going to act as a guide for the two in their journey, in case they came across anything on Cybertron that would hinder their progress in the slightest, and when the two saw that there was not likely going to be any chance of changing the legendary Autobot's mind, they gladly accepted his help and then set off for their destination, each assuming their respective vehicle modes. After driving forwards for a short while, Kira had finally pulled the key to Vector Sigma from where he had stored it in his suit, wondering how it was supposed to guide them. As he waved it around in front of him in confusion, he suddenly had to pause when the key began glowing a little when he held it in a certain position. Kira quickly started to piece together what it meant and slowly moved the key to where he was holding it when the glow first came, until the key began to glow a little more, and after waving it around that specific area for another minute, the key finally held a steady glow in one, specific direction that he immediately relayed to his traveling companions.

After they all diverted into the direction Kira had indicated, the three went on to follow the same form of travel instructions as they came, only traveling in the directions that the key glowed brightest in the direction of, though at one point, it seemed as though they were traveling in circles. Spartan immediately suspected that it was because Kira was still unsure of how worthy he was to hold the key, and immediately made this concern known to the other two. Bumblebee had wanted to argue the point, but when Kira just stayed silent, he found that he was unable to say anything in his friend's defense. "Optimus should've entrusted this to someone like Ultra Magnus, or Bumblebee," Kira eventually said after another minute of silence. "Any of the Autobots would be more worthy of this, so why give to me? I mean, an average human being is the farthest thing you can get from someone who's worthy of being a Prime."

Spartan was not going to hear any of that, and he immediately argued, "Kid, I may not know a lot about humans as a whole, but from what I have seen of them, I can honestly say that you are _not_ an average human being. I've seen you in action, Kira, and not just on battlefields either. There's something about you that makes others want to follow you anywhere, no matter what the risks, and every time the odds seemed stacked against you, you managed to find a way to pull through. That something special goes beyond anything someone could achieve from experience in the field or from being a Coordinator, and it's something that Optimus and so many others have seen inside of you on many occasions. You are worthy, you just need to realize it for yourself."

Kira stared out at Spartan's vehicle form from his cockpit for a few minutes in awe, honestly not expecting an Autobot he barely even knew to tell him that, and that seemed like all the encouragement he needed to remember the advice Ratchet had given him before they had left, about believing in what Optimus and the others saw in him even if he did not see it. So he brought the Strike Freedom to a halt, letting the Gundam sit there in its truck mode for a few minutes as he closed his eyes in an attempt to clear his mind of the doubts that were clouding it while raising up the key to Vector Sigma. When he suddenly heard what sounded like a small, melodic ringing, Kira opened his eyes and saw that the sound was coming from the key as it glowed even brighter than it had before when he held it in a certain direction, and somehow, he knew that the sound it was making was just as strong an indicator of the direction that they needed to head in as the bright glow was, only the ringing was providing a more accurate direction than the glow had on its own. With this new direction in mind, Kira immediately directed the two Autobots' attention towards their new course, and the three set off at their maximum speed, now more certain than ever of the route they would need to travel in order to reach their destination.

This time, their journey was much more seamless and repetitive, and they were able to spot a great number of varying landmarks that proved they were not going in circles, and it honestly began to seem like they would not encounter anymore problems until they reached a point where it seemed like there was some sort of holographic police line in front of them. While Kira was more than happy to keep going, and Bumblebee was just as happy to follow his young friend, Spartan had other ideas, as the soldier came skidding to a hard stop. Seeing this prompted Bumblebee and the Strike Freedom to stop and transform into bipedal mode as well, with the Gundam pilot immediately asking, "Spartan, what's wrong? We can't stop for anything, remember?"

"I know, but I'm afraid that this is where I have to leave you," Spartan said. "That area's a restricted zone that only certain Autobots have access to, and that number is extremely limited."

"What? That doesn't make sense. There wasn't anything like this before I left to start setting up the Earth Division," Bumblebee protested.

"That's because it didn't exist back then," Spartan said. "You should really come home more often, Bumblebee."

"Why is it a forbidden zone though," Kira cut in, wanting to get answers on the matter as quickly as possible.

"This is the border of what was once the heart of Decepticon territory," Spartan said. "The outskirts of the 'Cons' capital city."

"Kaon," Bumblebee gasped in slight shock, honestly surprised that he did not realize it sooner himself.

"Yep," Spartan nodded. "They've sent in teams to clear out and comb over the area at least a dozen times over, and every time they send a team in, they still end up finding out that there's a great variety of old Decepticon traps that were left undiscovered in there that were either set up as a final line of defense for their stronghold or to go off in case the enemy should ever return. That's why it's off limits to the public and most Autobots as well. Only the Autobots who've been there and know what to look out for area allowed to go in."

"Is that going to be a problem for us? The key's pointing us in this direction, and I don't think that we have time to figure out how to ask it to find an alternate route," Kira pointed out.

"It shouldn't be, seeing as Bumblebee's one of the 'Bots who has the necessary access to enter at will," Spartan replied with a shrug. "I just wish I could do more to help."

"You've already done enough, Spartan," Bumblebee assured the soldier. "Just get back to your troops and make sure that they're ready for any sudden attacks, assuming the 'Cons decide to use this time to hit us while the others are occupied on Chaar."

Spartan snapped a quick salute and then turned to roll out for the base that they had started from, leaving the two old friends to stare off into what was once the center of Decepticon territory on Cybertron. "You know, I've actually always wondered what the Decepticons' capital city was like since you guys told me about it," Kira admitted. "I mean, I like to think I did a good job of picturing it based off of what you all told me, but somehow, I don't think my imagination will be all that accurate."

"Are you nervous," Bumblebee asked.

"A little," Kira shrugged. "But I'm not too worried, Bee. After all, I'm with you."

Bumblebee gave Kira a small smile when he heard that and replied, "Well in all honesty, I'm a bit nervous as well, but I'm not worried at all."

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm with you," Bumblebee replied with a smile as he echoed Kira's words. Kira could not keep a smile off his face even if he wanted to, and with that little exchange done, the two transformed and proceed forward quickly but cautiously, making sure that they were keeping their eyes and ears open for anything, since they were sure that Spartan's warning should not be taken lightly.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Orion Pax was even more confused now than ever before. It was not that he did not trust Galvatron, as his old friend insisted on being called now, but he would not deny that some of the things his brother-like friend were saying did not seem to hold as much truth in them as he would like for them to have. With such thoughts running through his processors, Orion began doing a little research on the history of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons, and upon doing a surface scan of the information he found, everything seemed to line up with what Galvatron had said, and yet, it still did not make him feel any better. So he continued to pursue his quest for information, and dug deeper into the databases of the Decepticon base, only to find even more questions than he did answers, and he was not entirely sure if he wanted to know what some of those answers were.

Upon finding what he did, his first instinct was to find either Galvatron or someone else he could speak with on the matter, in case his old friend was too busy to speak with him, but unfortunately, he could not think of anyone among the Decepticons he would want to talk to, given how they all seemed to regard him. Starscream was a likely possibility, but there was something about that smirk that the eldest Seeker sibling often had that made Orion feel uneasy, and Predaking was most definitely out of the question, as Orion was now more certain than ever that there was something more to the looks the Predacon leader gave him than what Galvatron had told him, especially after seeing what he had found, and there was just something about Rau Le Creuset that made Orion feel rather uncomfortable. Before Orion could further question who he could talk to if Galvatron was busy, the Decepticon leader himself walked into his lab and asked, "Orion, have you made progress in your work?"

"I am…nearly finished, Lord Galvatron," Orion hesitantly replied.

The hesitancy was not lost on the Decepticon warlord, and he was quick to raise an eyebrow in response as he said, "And yet you sound as though you are uncertain of something. I am sure that your work is of no problem, so I must ask what is troubling you, old friend?" Orion paused in his decrypting before he tapped a few controls and brought up a piece of the information that he had found during his search in the database for answers. Galvatron did not really need to see this information, as he had Soundwave and Shockwave tracking the archivist's work in order to make sure that Orion had not strayed too far from his main concern. Sadly, the two were no match for the pupil of Alpha Trion, as the image that held Orion's likeness and was labeled "Optimus Prime" clearly indicated. "Ah yes. I can see why you would find that…disturbing," Galvatron commented, choosing his words as carefully as he could in his building outrage.

Orion had picked up on the anger in Galvatron's words, but at the moment, his mind was too riddled with questions and confusion to really care, and he desperately needed answers. "Why does history depict me being the leader of the Autobots," Orion asked. "And if it does not, then why do I share a likeness to Optimus Prime? I must know, who am I?"

If it were under any other circumstances, Galvatron would have been very enraged, but somehow, he managed to keep it reigned in well enough so that he could reply as calmly as possible, "Matters such as a simple identity crisis are not all that important at the moment, Orion, given our current situation. As we speak, at this very moment, the Autobots and they're allies are attacking the base in a vain attempt to destroy us all. If we lose this base, then we lose any hope of keeping the universe free from the Autobots' power, and the only way that can be avoided is if you complete your task, so I suggest you hurry and finish."

"But Lord Galvatron, do you even know what these coordinates point to," Orion asked, his tone clearly begging for his friend to reconsider his actions. "If we were to pursue them, then we would be unleashing total annihilation on the universe, and we would be no better than the beings that you claim the Autobots to be."

"Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good, Orion," Galvatron said in a barely repressed snarl. "Now continue your work."

Orion looked between his computer, which was currently holding every bit of information that he had already decoded, and his supposed friend before he finally made note of something. "You still have not answered my earlier question, Lord Galvatron. I don't understand why it would be a problem for you to tell me, but I'm begging you: please tell me, who _am_ I?"

"You are my clerk," Galvatron snarled, having finally lost all patience. "Now get back to work and decode those coordinates."

Orion could tell that he was running the risk of jumping straight into the flames of the Pits if he refused to do as Galvatron had ordered, but after seeing the look in Galvatron's optics, and then glancing at file that stated he was Optimus Prime of the Autobots, Orion knew that he could only say one thing. "…No," Orion finally said after a minute. "I would rather delete all of my findings and the information itself from its source than make them available for your questionable use."

With his piece said, Orion immediately marched over to the computer and hit the command to delete his work, erasing all traces of it from the computer, and leaving the monitor completely blank, save for the Decepticon sigil that took its place on the screen, and he then turned to leave. Admittedly, he found himself surprised that Galvatron had not attempted to stop him, and was still not doing so, but instead just watched him in silence with what Orion was certain was a powerful, enraged glare. At least, that was what he thought, until Galvatron suddenly chuckled in a deep, dark, menacing way that made Orion's stomach suddenly feel very uneasy. When he heard that chuckle, Orion immediately paused in his departure from the lab just in time to see Galvatron tap a control on the keyboard that instantly recalled all the information that Orion had just erased, much to his horror.

"It would seem that you are just as foolish as you are gullible," Le Creuset's voice suddenly boasted in a snide tone, causing the archivist to turn to the entrance to see the masked human walking in with a broad smirk on his face. "You didn't really think that we would be tracking and recording every iota of your research, did you?"

Orion could say nothing in reply, but soon found that he had another reason to be unable to speak when Galvatron had stomped up to him and glared down at him, a feat that would normally be almost impossible to do since the two were nearly the same height, but at the moment, Orion could not help but feel much smaller under that particular glare. "You may not remember it, but I still have the memory of the day you had last betrayed me burned into my processor, Pax," Galvatron snarled. "But that was back when I was the weak fool known as Megatronus, and later Megatron. I have no intention of making that mistake now."

With that said, Galvatron turned and stomped out of the room with Le Creuset directly behind him, and a small group of Vehicon and Predacon drones falling into positions to guard the room from both the outside and the inside in their place. Seeing this clearly told Orion that he was now most definitely a prisoner, and that his former friend would no doubt have his forces destroy him if he did not complete his task, but given what he had discovered about what those coordinates pointed towards, he had to wonder if it was really worth the entire universe to save his own spark.

As Galvatron marched away, Soundwave came in and displayed the latest report on the battle outside their base to him with the screen that acted as the silent Decepticon's face. What Galvatron saw though, was actually rather confusing. "Some of the Autobots best warriors are not among their number," Galvatron stated aloud.

"No doubt they held some back to defend some of their most important locations, such as Earth and Cybertron. It is only a natural tactic that one would expect of any leader, even whoever the Autobots currently have acting as Prime's replacement," Le Creuset reasoned.

"Maybe, but if that were the case, and this attack were to serve the purpose I believe it should, then why is it that Kira Yamato and Prime's faithful scout are not among the Autobots' numbers," Galvatron countered, and when he heard mention of this, Le Creuset immediately turned to see that the Decepticon warlord was correct.

"You don't suppose that they are part of a separate team that was sent into the base amidst the chaos, do you," Le Creuset asked.

"I would rather not risk it," Galvatron stated before turning to Soundwave. "Tell Starscream and his troops to pull back and comb the base's interior. Make sure they are aware that we may have enemy intruders on the inside, and have Lazerbeak search as well, along with the Insecticons."

Soundwave immediately nodded in acknowledgement of his orders and turned to leave, though once he was out of sight, Le Creuset had to wonder, "Are you sure it's wise to leave such a task to Starscream? You know that he can't be trusted, and when you consider the fact that we know a traitor is in our midst, he is the most likely suspect."

"Which is exactly why I am ordering him back," Galvatron explained. "If he is the traitor, then we need not worry about him sabotaging our main forces amidst the confusion of the battle outside, and we will have ample proof of the fact as well. If not, then we can deal with his sniveling later."

Le Creuset nodded in understanding of this, as this was a good plan for ousting Starscream and his intentions along with any followers he may or may not have once and for all, but there was still one other thing he felt that should be addressed. "What of Predaking," the masked terrorist queried. "I know that you noticed just as I had that he has become rather…hesitant in battle as of late, and I doubt that you had not noticed how he left the battlefield after his confrontation with the golden Gundam."

"Yes, I am well aware," Galvatron acknowledged. "Perhaps the time when the Predacons have outlived their usefulness has finally come, though we should hold off on terminating them until this battle has passed. I don't want to risk weakening our forces needlessly when there's a chance that we could lose the base."

Le Creuset nodded in agreement with Galvatron, and the two then departed to join the rest of their forces in the battle that was taking place outside, which was only growing more intense, if the fact that they could now hear the explosions from said battle within the base was anything to go by. What they did not notice in their haste to join their fellow Decepticons, was that Predaking had heard every word that was just said, and he was not pleased in the least. At that very moment, there was nothing that the Predacon leader wanted to do more than tear Galvatron's spark from his chest and squash Le Creuset like the traitorous bug he was, but he knew that lashing out like the animal that so many Decepticons believed him to be would gain him nothing, so he calmed his instincts that demanded for immediate revenged and turned his attention to the lab that was now being guarded by the pale imitations of his kind, knowing exactly what he needed to do right now lay within that lab.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

Spartan's warning was well given, as Kira and Bumblebee had found themselves encountering quite a few traps along the way to wherever the key to Vector Sigma was leading them, but thankfully, Bumblebee was able to locate and disable most of the traps they encountered before they were set off. Sadly, that was not always the case, because every now and then, there was a trap that the two had to fight their way through, such as a dormant Insecticon sentry drone or some other form of similar warrior that would try to tear them apart before they could go any further. At that very moment, they were battling one such monstrosity, and in Kira's opinion, the beast actually looked like it could have been an earlier, flawed version of the Dinobots, given that the Transformer they were fighting held an appearance similar to that of a two-headed Pteranodon.

The thing that made this particular Dinobot difficult to deal with is that he would always remain just out of their reach, so they could not really land a powerful blow on him with any of their close-combat weapons, and while the two heroes of Earth and Cybertron were both very skilled in their shooting abilities, Kira's skills partially being in thanks to the Strike Freedom's special targeting systems, the two-headed Pteranodon was somehow able to evade their shots with very little trouble. After a few more futile attempts to shoot the beast down, and knowing that their already tight schedule was becoming more and more difficult to keep with every second they spent fighting this thing, Bumblebee finally transformed and raced over to where he had spotted some old cabling, which he immediately grabbed hold of the minute he had returned to his bipedal mode next to said cabling. Grabbing the cables, Bumblebee then went on to spin them around like a cowboy would a lasso before tossing them up over his head into the mindless Dinobot's path, ensnaring the Pteranodon in an instant, and bringing its high speed flight to a slow yet still immediate halt. Seeing what his friend had done, Kira could not help but smirk a little in thanks before letting loose every single one of the Strike Freedom's weapons on their opponent, destroying it in an instant, and prompting Bumblebee to drop the cabling the minute he felt it go slack.

The two panted a little as they walked over to where their fallen opponent's remains now laid, until Kira finally gasped, "So, do you want to tell Grimlock we had to kill one of his most recently discovered family members, or should I do it?"

Bumblebee gave a weak chuckle in response before his expression became serious and said, "We should get moving. There's no telling how much further we have to go before we finally find at least the entrance to the chamber Vector Sigma is in. Any ideas how close we are, Kira?"

Kira finally managed to catch his breath and then pulled out the key to wave it around a bit, seeing which direction it glowed most intensely in that also had the ringing tone to accompany it, until he finally reached a point where the key was glowing brighter and ringing louder than it had before. "I don't think I can say for certain, but I'm very sure we're getting very close," Kira finally replied before moving the Strike Freedom forward at a walking pace, which Bumblebee was quick to follow.

They did not have to go far though, as a minute later, a sudden earthquake caused them to freeze in their tracks, and the ground began to crack in various places. Kira immediately reacted on his first instinct and had the Strike Freedom lift up into the air so that his Gundam would not fall over onto its side, while Bumblebee just did his best to stay standing upright, all the while, the two could not help but gaze in awe as the entrance to a large tunnel slowly rose up from beneath the metal surface of Cybertron. When the quaking finally came to a stop, the door to the tunnel glowed in a similar way to the key while making a series of circuit patterns and what looked like ancient Cybertronian writing before opening up to admit them entrance. The two just stared in amazement at the fact that they had actually found the entrance to the legendary chamber of Vector Sigma until Bumblebee finally took notice of their surroundings.

A minute after he had, the Autobot warrior had to develop a small scowl in remembrance as he revealed, "This is the central arena where Megatron held most of his Decepticon meetings and rallies, both before and during the war, and it's also where he proved his worth as a gladiator. Some would say that it's the very heart of Kaon."

"You mean Vector Sigma is right in the center of the former Decepticon territory," Kira gasped in shock.

"Kaon didn't always belong to the 'Cons, even if most of them were born here," Bumblebee explained. "At some point after his meeting with the Council, Megatron took it as a capital, apparently without ever even realizing what lay beneath their feet."

"Clearly," Kira nodded in understanding. He then took a small look around and noticed what seemed to be the remains of a statue of Megatron a short distance away from them, and he could not help but smirk as he indicated the rumble and asked, "I'm guessing that was Wheeljack's work?"

When Bumblebee noticed what Kira was indicating, he had to smirk a little and replied, "Well, he may have planted the bombs, but everything else, that was all me. It was a little graduation present that Wheeljack set up for me. Felt so good to blow it up."

Kira had to laugh a little at that, but his mood quickly changed when the distinct sound of a loud roar reached their ears again, and the two turn to see not one, but two more massive Transformers that could only be more of Shockwave's other experiments in creating Dinobots. This belief was quickly proven true when the two suddenly transformed into a Velociraptor and a Spinosaurus before they charged at Kira and Bumblebee with mighty roars. The two friend immediately dodged to either side in order to avoid the charging beasts before activating their respective arm blasters and opening fire, but their shots either bounced off the armor of the Spinosaurus or completely missed the Velociraptor, given how fast it was racing around them. Eventually, Bumblebee had garnered the full attention of the Velociraptor and was forced to use one of his wrist blades to defend himself from the fast-moving Dinobot's various charge-attacks, while his other arm remained armed with his blaster, which he used to try and hit the beast as best as he could.

Kira would have moved to help his friend, but the Spinosaurus was constantly pushing him away from Bumblebee and closer to the entrance to the Vector Sigma chamber, and even with all of the weapons at the Strike Freedom's disposal, Kira was barely able to make so much as a scratch on the savage Dinobot's armor. When Bumblebee saw the situation Kira was in, he immediately rolled to the side in order to avoid the Velociraptor Dinobot's next attack and fired on the Spinosaurus, immediately drawing its attention onto him as he shouted, "Kira go! I'll hold these guys here while you get to Vector Sigma!"

"What," Kira exclaimed. "No way! I'm not going to just leave you behind to deal with these things on your own! We're in this together!"

"Kira, right now, getting you and that key to Vector Sigma is all that matters, because if we don't, we'll never be able to save Optimus," Bumblebee argued as he intercepted the Spinosaurus Dinobot with his wrist blade and then followed up by firing his arm blaster at point-blank just as he connected a powerful punch to the side of its face. Bumblebee then rolled away to avoid another charge-attack from the Velociraptor Dinobot before firing his blaster at it before turning to Kira one more time and shouting, "JUST GO!"

Kira hesitated for another minute, glancing between his friend and the entrance to Vector Sigma, before he finally acknowledge Bumblebee was right and nodded in reply as he said, "Roger that."

Bumblebee had to smile a little when he saw the Strike Freedom disappear into the cavern that lay ahead of it and the door sealed shut behind the Gundam, indicating that the only way to get in would be with a great deal of brute strength or with the key that Kira possessed, and knowing quite well that a Dinobot would more than likely have enough raw power to break through the door on its own served as all the more reason Bumblebee needed to throw a challenging glare at his two opponents before he met their charge with one of his own, all while he shouted two words. "COME ON!"

* * *

Kira really did not like the idea of leaving Bumblebee behind in the way that he had, but he knew that his friend was right in saying that the mission was of too great importance to risk any more delays than what they already had been forced to make, so he just kept pressing on, eventually transforming his Gundam into truck mode so that he would be able to get to his destination faster. As he went further and further in, the key continued to glow brighter and brighter with each passing second, though he was honestly wondering if it really needed to seeing as the tunnel only went in the one direction, but he figured that it was to either serve as something of a light source, given how dark it was down there, or to make sure that whoever was following the key would not be given any doubts on the matter. Eventually though, Kira had to bring the Strike Freedom to a stop, as he seemed to literally arrive at the end of the road, but the key in his hand had other ideas, as it glowed the brightest it had up to this point while the ringing reached a high pitch sound that could only be most closely related to the sound of thousands of small bells ringing all at once before the wall in front of him glowed just as the door to the entrance of this passage had earlier.

When the glow on the wall finally passed, the walls began parting and soon allowed a bright light to flood the chamber that forced Kira to shield his eyes for a minute since he had gotten so used to the dimly lit chambers by that point. When his eyes finally readjusted to the new light source, he could only stare in open-mouthed shock at what lay beyond the entrance, for inside was a massive, circular room that seemed to extend upwards to the surface of Cybertron and then all the way down to the planet's core, while a bridge connected the doorway to a large platform in the center which had an intricate design in the middle that seemed to be a near exact match to the design on the key. Knowing that this was most definitely what he was looking for, Kira could not help but grin brightly and let out a small laugh as he slowly drove the Strike Freedom into the room, until he managed to calm himself enough to tap his comm. link and report, "Kira to all units. I'm in."

Kira could hear a few cries of congratulations and success coming over the comm. link, as well as the sound of a few explosions that no doubt came from the comm. devices of the team that was fighting in the main battle on Kaon, but at that point, it had all become background noise to him as he pulled up to the edge of the central platform. He then transformed the Strike Freedom into Gundam mode once again before setting it on autopilot and sentry mode, a setting that would allow the Gundam to act on its own in case anyone tried to attack either it or its pilot and climbed down with the key in hand as he approached the center of the platform, where he noticed a faint glow was coming from. Knowing that was likely the location where he needed to place the key, Kira immediately walked up and placed the silver and blue device down in the center of the indicated slot, and then stepped back as the key enlarged itself so that it fit into the slot perfectly.

A minute later, the sounds of gears coming to life rang out as the chamber seemed to light up with what was now becoming a very familiar blue glow, prompting Kira to step back a little until he was right next to his Gundam. When he looked back, he saw that the section of the platform where he had placed the key had retracted a bit before lifting up so that it stood in a vertical position while the rest of the central area had retracted to allow a massive, bluish-white orb with a pair of rings circling around it rose up from the floor. When the orb had finally reached a certain point in the air, it came to a stop and the vertical platform began to emit a series of lights that seemed to flow from the edges and then stream into the key that was held at the center, all while the orb's rings seemed to spin around at a steady pace.

"This is…just…" Kira tried to say to his friends on the other end of his comm., but he found that no words could really describe what he was seeing. In the end, there was really only one thing he could say about it all. "You guys would have to see all this to be able to really know how amazing it is. Anyway, the download has begun and is now running at a steady pace…I think."

He then received a quick "roger" in reply from Natarle, Ultra Magnus, and the others who could reply and then decided to stand back and watch as the download ran its course, making sure to stay close to the Strike Freedom just in case he needed to climb into the Gundam at a moment's notice. "We'll have you back soon Optimus, I promise," Kira whispered.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Orion was ashamed to admit that he had resumed his work on decoding the coordinates that Galvatron and Le Creuset required for their plans, for fear of what the Vehicons and Predacon drones would do to him if he did not. Now, one could argue that there was nothing wrong with Orion's choice and that it was only natural for him to do so because he was only Cybertronian, but something about doing this made the shame Orion felt only increase in its intensity. He was just thankful that his efforts were a bit delayed due to the fact that it was hard to concentrate with the sounds of the battle that was going on outside, but he soon found another reason to pause in his work when a sudden commotion seemed to erupt from outside, drawing his attention and that of his guards'. When the two Vehicons noticed that Orion had stopped working, they were about to arm their blasters and tell him to get back to work when the door was suddenly smashed open, admitting Predaking into the lab. The Vehicons were a bit hesitant to try and restrain the Predacon leader from carrying out his actions, but their hesitance was what ended up costing them and allowing Predaking to deal with them in a matter of seconds, leaving only himself and his true target in the room: Orion Pax.

Seeing Predaking turn his gaze onto him caused Orion to back up into the computer in fear of what might happen to him, but the action only succeeding in allowing Predaking to corner him completely as the Predacon stomped up to glare down at him in distaste. "W-what do you want," Orion stuttered in fear.

Predaking's distasteful glare only intensified at Orion's question, and he continued to silently glare down at the archivist in the same manner for what seemed like an eternity to Orion until he finally snarled, "Pathetic. I had hoped that there was still something of the warrior you once were inside, but if you are trembling this greatly then it seems I was wrong."

Now Orion was confused, and his confusion only grew when Predaking turned to stomp angrily away, prompting him to, perhaps foolishly, say, "I…I don't understand. Why do you think that I was a warrior? I'm just a data clerk."

Predaking stopped in his tracks and turned back so that he could face Orion directly as he demanded, "If that were true, then why do you have armor such as that?"

"It is…for my protection, in case the Autobots were to try and harm me," Orion stated, though the hesitance in his voice was not missed by Predaking.

"Do you really believe Galvatron's lie, or are you just trying to refuse what you know to be the truth," Predaking asked. When Orion did not answer, Predaking continued to press on and say, "Why would you need armor as powerful as that if it were only for your protection? Why not something that is lighter and that would better allow you a quick escape should the need arise? Why give you armor that is likely powerful enough to withstand this?"

Before Orion could ask what Predaking was referring to when he asked that last question, he found himself slammed into a nearby wall by a powerful punch from the Predacon leader. Orion was shocked to discover that, though the blow did hurt, it did not actually seem to cause any real damage to him or his armor. He did not have time to marvel at this for long, as an instant later, Predaking had pounced on him and was delivering more punishment onto his being. Though the blows did no real damage, Orion still attempted to raise his arms in defense, though he was shocked to find that it was not a feeble form of defense like he put up when Galvatron had encouraged him to try his servo at the gladiator matches a few times back when he was Megatronus, but instead, a rather strong defense that one would probably expect from a seasoned fighter. His shock at this was what ended up allowing Predaking to deliver a blow that knocked him into the wall again and then be pinned there a second later by the Predacon.

"Please, wait," Orion pleaded. "I wish to…talk with you about something of great importance."

That seemed to give Predaking a small reason to pause, as he eased up on his hold to snarl, "Make it quick, because my patience is very thin at the moment."

It may not have been the opening he would have preferred, but Orion was willing to take what he could get all the same, and he quickly explained, "Are you aware of the nature of the coordinates that I have been decrypting?"

"No, and I do not see what that has to do with this situation," Predaking snarled, indicating that he was in no mood for games.

"I'd rather not say too much right now in case Lord Galvatron or Commander Le Creuset are listening in, but I can tell you that if they are given these coordinates, the Autobots won't be the only ones in danger, but the entire universe will be," Orion explained. "If we work together, we can warn the Autobots, tell them where to find us and how to destroy the data, and they could help us escape along with your fellow Predacons. Maybe they could even help protect us from Lord Galvatron and Commander Le Creuset's…"

Anything more that Orion was going to say was cut off when Predaking threw him to the floor with an angered roar and began to kick him in the side over and over again as he said, "Pathetic! You are hardly even the shadow of the warrior you once were! What happened to the one who has become one of the very few to earn my respect as an opponent? Where is the one who the Autobots all look to for guidance even in their darkest moments? WHERE IS HE?!"

Predaking continued his physical and verbal assault on Orion for some time, while Orion desperately attempted to get away before the Predacon killed him. When a small pause came in Predaking's attacks, Orion somehow managed to pull himself into a sitting position against another one of the computers in the lab, only to be assaulted once more, causing him to plead, "No…stop…please…ENOUGH!"

The final outburst was not what caused Predaking to pause for a moment in his assault, but rather, what had accompanied it, for right at that same moment, in an act of what was either desperation or pure instinct that the clerk did not seem to know he possessed, Orion had transformed his left hand into his arm blaster, much to each of their respective surprise. "I…I'm armed," Orion gasped in questioning, truly showing that he had not expected that.

That question served as all that Predaking needed to come out of his own pause and attempt to attack Orion again, but this time, Orion retaliated, continuing to act on instinct as he did, by firing the blaster that was once his hand a few times. Though none of his shots seriously wounded Predaking, the shock of the fact that Orion had fired at all was enough to cause Predaking to be knocked back by the blasts. Orion then slowly began to rise to his feet, only to freeze in fear when he saw that Predaking managed to reach his feet first, certain that the Predacon was going to do worse in response for what he had done just now. What came instead though, much to Orion's surprise, was not a retaliation, but a hearty laugh instead, something that seemed rather foreign coming from the usually stoic and somewhat hateful Predacon leader.

"It would seem that the warrior inside you does live on," Predaking chuckled as he began to calm himself down again. He then continued to surprise Orion by turning to leave, but he paused in the door once again to look back and say, "The Autobots are here right now in an attempt to get you back. There's no doubt in my mind that Galvatron and Le Creuset will have joined the battle by now, so if you truly wish to help them, then I'm certain that you now know what you must really do." Predaking then paused for a minute, seeming as though he were hesitant about what he would say next, before he finally said, "I know that I have given you no reason to trust me, or even help me in anyway, but I still must ask…if you do escape with the rest of the Autobots…please find a way to save my brethren and I before Galvatron and Le Creuset destroy us."

Orion said nothing in reply, mostly due to the fact that he was too shocked by what had just happened to even speak at all, and simply watched as Predaking departed with those final words, leaving Orion to his own devices and thoughts. Looking between the doorway that Predaking had just left through and his arm that was currently a weapon, Orion found that a million different thoughts were racing through his mind at a much faster pace than before. He honestly did not know what to think anymore, or even who to believe, and he found himself wishing that either Ariel, Dion, Jazz, or Ratchet were there right now, as each of them would probably know what to tell him right then. After a minute though, his optics caught sight of the image of Optimus Prime on the screen, and after staring at it for a few minutes, something seemed to just click for Orion, somehow telling him just what he should do.

* * *

The battle for Chaar had been progressing at a rather even pace for some time now, at least from what she could tell from the explosions that seemed to echo even from inside the base, but at the moment, Arcee really did not care all that much, as she was more focused on the goal of her team's mission: locating and extracting Optimus to one of the five ships that had come here with them. In all honesty, she would probably have preferred someone else to be on this team with her, or that Elita were leading the mission instead, given her past command experience in comparison to the two-wheeler's, but Arcee would not deny that Strongarm, Elita, Drift, and Blur were doing a very impressive job following her lead in their infiltration and search of the Decepticon base so far. At least, so long as you do not take the fact that they still had not found Optimus into consideration and just remember that they had gotten in undetected at all, anyway. So far, they had investigated a number of the major locations that had been highlighted on the maps that they were sent with no luck in finding Optimus, but instead, they found the Decepticons' armory, a few of Shockwave's cloning and mobile suit development labs, and the storage area for the 'Cons' supply of Dark Energon. While it was not what they were looking for, they did not leave any of the areas alone, for they made sure that they gathered any information they could from the computers in each of the rooms that had a computer while Elita set some charges to destroy the facilities in question, and as soon as they were done, they quickly moved on to the next target.

After a few more minutes, they were about to come to the next area that had been highlighted on the maps they were sent, and according to Fixit, it was also the area that Optimus was most likely to be found in. Seeing their goal in sight was enough to prompt Strongarm to start moving, only to stop when Arcee raised an arm in front of her. The two-wheeler then looked back as she scanned the area before them carefully until she finally whispered, "Motion sensors, a few dozen surveillance systems, possible laser trip wire traps, and an electrified floor."

Strongarm looked from Arcee to the area ahead, not seeing any of what Arcee had just mentioned, and she ended up asking, "Ma'am, how can you tell that any of that is even there?"

"Years of in-field experience can help you learn how to spot even the smallest signs of many different kinds of traps, rookie," Arcee replied. "Either way, if the path forward is this heavily guarded then we must be getting close, which means that the Intel is starting to seem to be pretty good."

"Yes, and if these are the traps we must face, then we should proceed with caution," Elita reasoned.

"Let us hope that violence will continue to be a last resort today," Drift nodded as the group started to cautiously move forward, but he had spoken too soon, for an instant later, a large tentacle suddenly grabbed him and hoisted him up into the air, drawing everyone's attention as he screamed in shock. Looking to what the tentacle was connected to, the team all immediately felt sick at how horrible looking it seemed to be, for they had never seen anything that looked so disgusting before in any of their lives. The creature seemed to be a mix between some type of slug and the most bizarre plant known to any lifeform, while seeming to have almost twice as many tentacles as an Earth squid, and its body seemed to be comprised of various different animals after they had all been mixed together. Some of the team believed that it was probably one of Shockwave's experiments gone horribly wrong, but there was no denying the possibility that it could be some type of creature that was native to Chaar.

At the moment, Drift did not really care what this monster was. All he cared about was the fact that it had him in its grasp and was throwing him around like he were nothing and was more than likely going to try and eat him, so he immediately whipped out his swords and started slashing away at the beast shouting, "I'LL KILL YOU, FOUL MONSTER!"

Clearly any chance of staying out of the Decepticons' notice by staying quiet was no longer a viable option, and the team were all immediately firing their weapons at the monster in an attempt to help Drift get free. When the samurai Wrecker finally cut through the tentacle that was holding him, he immediately used his incredible speed to start slashing apart the monster at an incredible speed while giving a loud battle cry. After a few more minutes, Drift landed in front of the creature with his swords held in a position that had clearly resulted from coming out of an attack, and everyone waited for a few tense minutes until Drift finally spun the blades back into the holsters on his back and the creature fell dead a second later, making everyone immediately remember think of a similar move that they had seen in some Earth movies and television.

Everyone was quiet for a minute, staring between Drift and the creature that had attacked him from out of nowhere, until Strongarm finally said, "Well, I think it's dead now."

"Yes, I'm sure that half the base is well aware of that, and the fact that we're here," Arcee remarked, irritably.

"Not the entire base, but we certainly know. In all honesty, I'm glad you killed it. We all hate those things," an irritatingly familiar voice commented in reply, and the team immediately turned to see Starscream, Quicksilver, Ransack, Cyclonus, and Demolisher standing before them. "But really, if you wanted to see some of our humble abode, all you had to do was ask," Starscream then added on to what he had said earlier.

The Autobots' response to the Seeker's words was to immediately draw their weapons and charge into battle against the enemy team. Strongarm was more than able to bring down Ransack with a few well-placed shots from her crossbow, and she then moved to assist Drift and Elita with Cyclonus and Demolisher, leaving Quicksilver and Starscream for Blur and Arcee. In all honesty, one could not help but wonder what would happen if Quicksilver and Blur were to face off, but from what the Autobots could see, it was clear that not only was Blur not really giving it his everything against the triple-changer, but Starscream's apprentice also did not seem to really be putting his all into the fight either. The only difference was that Quicksilver was fighting in a way that seemed like he was just trying to make the fight look good for some reason, and a glance to Arcee and Starscream's battle told everyone that the devious Seeker was doing the same as his apprentice.

Eventually, all of the Decepticon opponents were knocked into stasis, save for Starscream, as the Autobots intended to use him to get them through the traps and into the room. When they finally managed to drag the complaining Decepticon to their next destination, they were surprised to find that the door had already been smashed open by someone else, and the lab inside was empty. Seeing yet another location where her sparkmate was not immediately drove Elita over the edge, and she quickly grabbed their prisoner and slammed into the wall while holding her TechVolt in the Seeker's face as she snarled, "Enough games. Where. Is. Optimus?"

"I-I don't know," Starscream stuttered, but when the electric weapon suddenly became even more charged, he knew that was not the answer that Elita wanted to hear. "I swear upon the AllSpark, I don't know," Starscream insisted. "He was in here doing some research for Galvatron and Le Creuset just moments ago, and he has been for the entire time he was here save for when they were remaking his Autobot sigil into a Decepticon one!"

"Elita, stand down," Arcee ordered, and after a few minutes, Elita did after she had roughly dropped Starscream to the floor. Arcee was not one to take Starscream at his word, but the Seeker was well known for squealing like a sparkling when threatened in the way that he just was. Seeing the situation her team was now in, Arcee quickly tapped her comm. link and called out, "Arcee to main fleet, we've located where Optimus was supposed to be, but he's gone. The door was blasted open from the outside by an unknown force, but that's the only sign of anything happening that we can immediately detect."

 _"Is your cover still intact,"_ Ultra Magnus asked.

"…Negative," Arcee replied after a hesitant minute. "We were forced to drop cover when we were attacked by an unknown creature, and were soon confronted by Starscream and four other 'Cons. Should we continue to search the base?"

 _"No, pull out,"_ Natarle denied. _"If you've been discovered then we can't risk letting you get caught or overwhelmed by a battalion of enemy troops. Get out of there and give the rest of our forces support so that we can make a temporary retreat."_

"But Natarle, what about Optimus," Elita started to argue when she heard the order.

 _"That's an order, Elita One,"_ Natarle snapped.

Elita looked like she was going to go against said orders, until Ultra Magnus's voice said, _"I don't like it anymore than you do, Elita, but there isn't anything we can do now in regards to Optimus's situation. For the moment, we can at least cripple the enemy base so that when we do come back, we'll have an easier time dealing with them."_

Arcee understood how Elita likely felt right now, but she could see the two commanders' reasoning, so after waiting a few more minutes for Elita to realize it as well, Arcee finally replied, "Understood. We're on our way out now."

The five Autobots then raced for the exit, never noticing Starscream was gaining a small smirk on his face as they left. The truth was, he actually knew exactly what had happened to Optimus, seeing as he saw Predaking leaving the lab just mere moments ago without anyone other than Quicksilver knowing, and given what was currently displayed on the still activated monitor, he had a good idea of what the Prime was doing now. This was good news for Starscream, as not only would that throw a bit of a wrench into Galvatron and Le Creuset's plans, but the little show he and Quicksilver had just put on would likely guarantee any doubts about their "loyalty" would be put at ease for just long enough for him to finally make his move, and he was certain that he would be able to do so just as the two mad warlords were preparing to make their next move in their grand schemes. All he had to do now was just sit back and watch as the events of this conflict unfolded.

* * *

Outside the Decepticon base, the Autobots and Gundam pilots were giving everything they had against their enemies, and in the time that had already passed, the five ships had sent out the other machines that they had brought along on this mission, which consisted of DOMs, ZAKUs, GOUFs, and Murasames, ultimately evening the odds a little bit more for the heroes, but it was not by very much, if one were to be totally honest with themselves. While the heroes did everything they could, the Decepticons had a slight advantage since they had undead Transformers fighting for them, and the Terrorcons were more than able to keep fighting until someone managed to steel themselves and cut the zombies' arms and legs off from their bodies, though not many of them were able to, so it was clear that they would eventually be overrun. At least, until they managed to catch a break thanks to Arcee's team coming in from behind the enemy forces in a rapid sneak attack that left the enemy a bit confused for a moment.

That confusion was just what the heroes of Earth and Cybertron needed to push the enemy back a little more so that Arcee's team could have a little help getting back to them, but their brief advantage did not last very long, as the enemy troops soon managed to get a sudden boost of morale and strength when Galvatron and the Advocate suddenly blasted into the battlefield, eliminating a number of the various general troops when they did. "You were fools to come here, Autobots. You and your allies," Galvatron shouted to the heroes.

"Still, they should be commended for finding this base at all," Le Creuset pointed out. "Truly an unexpected accomplishment, given their leader's current status and situation."

"Yes," Galvatron admitted with a nod. "And though I am wondering why you would risk such a foolish undertaking, it will not matter in a few moments, because I intend to make sure that we won't have the chance to make the mistake of underestimating you again!"

An instant later, the two madmen were charging into the hottest point of the battle, and tearing through any Autobot, Gundam, or mobile suit that tried to stand in their way. Eventually, they were brought to a halt by Ultra Magnus and the Infinite Justice, when the two warriors intercepted their attacks with their respective weapons, ultimately leading them into a battle of the current leaders of both sides. Magnus was quick to unleash swing after powerful swing with the Forge of Solus Prime on Galvatron, while Athrun utilized both the Infinite Justice's dual beam saber and one of its arm blades against Le Creuset, but somehow, the two psychopaths were able to shrug off the blows and retaliate in kind, tenfold, bringing Ultra Magnus down in a matter of minutes while Athrun was just blasted away like he was nothing.

Miraculously, the Infinite Justice survived the Advocate's assault without sustaining any serious damage, but Athrun had been rattled by the attack so much that he was unable to do anything to make his machine get up off the ground before Le Creuset was positioned over him with the Advocate's arm suddenly turning into a blaster, much like the Transformer Gundams could. "Surprised, Athrun," Le Creuset asked. "I don't know why you should be. After all, this is your technology. I must admit, I never expected humanity would be able to see far enough past their differences and desires for destruction in order to complete work on such incredible technology, but as Galvatron said, I won't make that mistake again."

Magnus was soon pinned down beneath Galvatron's foot as the warlord prepared to fire his Fusion Cannon at point-blank range, all the while boasting, "And now, with your death, I will ensure that there is never a chance that the lineage of the Primes will ever live again."

"I cannot allow that to happen, Galvatron," a familiar, baritone voice suddenly shouted across the battlefield, causing everyone to suddenly freeze in their tracks for a moment in shock at hearing the voice. Turning to the source, everyone was surprised to see that Orion Pax had come out onto the battlefield, but Galvatron simply smirked in amusement at this sudden development.

"And why should you care, Orion Pax? You are no Prime," Galvatron reminded the clerk.

"That may be true," Orion admitted, making everyone start to think that he would leave until he continued. "Or maybe it is yet another deception, but this much I do know: my sympathies lie with the Autobots, and you and Le Creuset are not one of us."

Galvatron snarled when he heard Orion say those words, which the clerk had punctuated by raising his fists up in preparation for battle, but this disgust was short-lived, as a minute later, Orion had charged in to strike down his former friend, only to have his attack intercepted by Galvatron while he was left open for the punch to his abdomen that Galvatron delivered a second later. "I honestly hoped this would not happen, Orion," Galvatron admitted. "But it seems that you are destined to betray me no matter what happens."

Before Galvatron could strike Orion again, he was suddenly tackled from behind by none other than Elita One, and then knocked around by Ultra Magnus. When Le Creuset took notice of this, he ended up leaving himself open for Athrun to finally regain all of his senses and push the psycho off of him, and right into Rey and Mu's line of fire. After Elita had helped Orion to his feet once again, the six then formed up and prepared themselves for the next round of the battle that they were about to face.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

Bumblebee was not having a good day at the moment. Of course, every day since they had lost Optimus to the Decepticons had felt like anything but a good day to the Earth Division leader, but at the moment, Bumblebee was having an exceptionally bad day. Locating Vector Sigma so that Kira could load the key he was given with everything they would need to restore the Matrix of Leadership was supposed to be a very simple assignment, and instead, they had to drive right into the heart of what was once the very center of Decepticon territory, all while avoiding numerous booby-traps, mindless Insecticon drones, and even a few Dinobot experiment rejects, and now, two of that last one was currently trying to tear him apart like tissue paper. The Velociraptor and Spinosaurus Dinobots were constantly hammering down on him with everything they had, shrugging off whatever he threw at them before giving it right back, and though he was able to deliver a few hard blows in retaliation, Bumblebee did not need to be an expert on the matter to know that it was nothing compared to what they had dealt to him. Of course, Bumblebee knew that he just needed to keep these two beasts occupied until Kira had finished retrieving what they needed to restore the Matrix, but considering how long it seemed like Kira had been gone, he was starting to think that maybe it was a bad idea to try and fight these things alone.

Another hard hit to his back from Velociraptor's tail, followed up by a rolling tackle from Spinosaurus were all that were needed to bring Bumblebee down to the ground at that point, and now he was having trouble so much as rising up to his knees, let alone putting up a fight. The fact that he could see the two's shadows falling over him quickly told him that they were going to try and finish him off before going after Kira, an action that he could not allow to happen no matter how injured he was, but just before either he or the two mindless Dinobots could do anything, the sound of the entrance to Vector Sigma opening, accompanied by the sound of thrusters reached all their audio receptors, causing them to look towards the recently raised entrance just in time for them all to see the Strike Freedom Gundam barreling towards them with the Star Saber slung over its shoulder.

Bumblebee was sure that he had heard Kira yell something, but at the moment, he was not really paying attention, as he was more concerned with just getting himself on his feet again before the rogue Dinobots could destroy Kira, but when he finally managed to stand up again, he looked to see that it was not necessary. The minute that the Velociraptor was within range, the Strike Freedom swung the mighty weapon of Prima as hard as it could, and cut the rouge Dinobot clean in two, and Kira then turned his attention towards the Spinosaurus, just as it was going into a rolling attack, and charged at it as well, bringing the sword around for a strong, horizontal slash that severed the Spinosaurus in half just as easily as its fellow Dinobot had been. After settling the Strike Freedom on the ground and somehow managing to holster the Star Saber onto its back once again, Kira immediately directed his machine over to Bumblebee at a walking pace until he was right next to his friend and able to administer some patches to the injuries that Bumblebee had sustained.

"You alright, Bee," Kira asked as he finished applying one of the last patches.

"I'll live," Bumblebee panted in reply. "But forget about me for the moment. Did you get it?"

Kira smiled and quickly climbed out of his cockpit so that he could show Bumblebee the key, which was now glowing white instead of blue. "We have the backup Matrix, and its completely ready for upload."

Bumblebee smiled at Kira with pride and said, "Then what're we waiting for? Let's roll!"

With that said, the two immediately transformed to vehicle mode and hightailed it out of Kaon at their maximum speed, thinking that it would be better to request a Space Bridge to the battle once they were out of the dangerous area of Cybertron, and the minute they were back outside the safety of the barrier that surrounded Kaon, Bumblebee immediately got in touch with their friends on Chaar. What he received in reply was something that horrified them both and increased their desire to reach the others as soon as possible. _"If you've really got the Matrix, then you'd best get over here now. Galvatron and Le Creuset are fighting Optimus, Elita, Magnus, Athrun, Mu, and Rey at this very minute,"_ Blaster informed them from the _Omega III_.

"Get the Space Bridge open on the double then," Bumblebee shouted, and an instant later, the blue vortex that they had come to know so well appeared before them, and they immediately increased their speed towards it.

"Are you sure that we'll make it through this without a ship," Kira shouted over the roar of the Strike Freedom's truck mode.

"Well we're about to find out one way or the other," Bumblebee replied, and a mere few seconds later, the two vanished into the portal, with the blue vortex disappearing as soon as they had.

* * *

Orion honestly was not sure what he was thinking when he decided to come out and try to fight Galvatron and Le Creuset with the Autobots and their allies, especially if the sound beating that he and the ones he was currently fighting alongside of was anything to go by. All he knew was that at the moment, it just seemed like the right thing to do, but even so, that did not make it any less painful, as the most recent hit he received from his former friend easily proved. "Your spark may be in what you believe to be the right place, Orion," Galvatron complimented, only to follow it up with an elbow to the back of Orion's head, ultimately delivering a mouthful of dirt to Orion after he had. "But you have much to learn before you can ever again hope to stand your ground against me. A moment, sadly, which shall never come."

Orion then managed to sit up just in time to see that Galvatron was readying the Dark Star Saber for the final blow that would no doubt finish him off, and a glance towards the others showed that the strange machines that had been fighting Le Creuset were also in a similar position. Orion honestly wished that he were a great warrior at the moment, because maybe then he would have been able to truly make a difference in this fight, or at least be able to face certain death without fear, but he was not, and he was sure that the horror he felt was clear as day on his face at the moment, yet for some reason, he found that he could not look away from his friend, at least, not until he heard the sound of an approaching engine at high speeds.

A minute later, the engine sound was replaced with that of a Cybertronian transforming, and Galvatron was suddenly knocked away by a black blur with gold stripes, which soon revealed itself to be a very pissed off Bumblebee. The minute his pedes had hit the ground, Bumblebee immediately readied his wrist blades and charged in to meet Galvatron in sword combat, for what little good it would do him. When Le Creuset saw that the Autobot Earth Division's leader had arrived, he was prepared to try and assist Galvatron in dealing with him, but a sudden barrage of energon beams prevented him from moving so much as an inch in that direction, and he did not even need to look up to see the blue winged, white and black Gundam with gold highlights to know who was responsible.

Once he had the Strike Freedom positioned next to Optimus, Kira immediately shouted, "Kira to any Gundam pilots or Autobots who are still able to fight. I need some covering fire to keep Galvatron and Le Creuset off me for a few minutes."

"You've got it, Kira," Athrun replied, and just like that, the Infinite Justice was charging back into the fight, with the Liberator, Star Force Strike, and even the Gaia following right behind it. While Athrun and Waltfeld were able to directly engage the Advocate though, Mu and Rey found themselves prevented from joining the fight by Ro and the new elite clone.

"Stay out of our way, Co Zane," Rey shouted as he directed his machine's DRAGOONs onto the enemy clone.

"In your dreams, Za Burrel," Ro retorted. "This is the price you pay for choosing the wrong side."

"Maybe in your opinion," Mu retorted as he brought the Star Force Strike's beam rifle around to fire a powerful blast of energy at the two, only for the unknown clone's machine to intercept the blast with his machine's shield. "Well, your quite the little pest, aren't you," Mu remarked to the new clone.

Mu was not expecting a reply from the new enemy, so he was naturally shocked when he heard the pilot suddenly say, "I am more than simply a pest to you, Gundam pilot, and soon you will suffer at the hands of Prayer Reverie."

"Well you're certainly going to need a few prayers when I'm done with you," Mu quipped in reply before charging in with the an arm blade ready for battle.

As Orion looked on at the chaos that was now unfolding before him, he noticed a small bit of movement from the corner of his eye, immediately drawing his attention towards it until his optics fully rested on the small form of Kira Yamato. Once Athrun and the others had managed to get Galvatron and Le Creuset's attention away from him, Kira had quickly activated the Strike Freedom's sentry mode once again so that the machine could keep firing a few shots from its weapons without anyone noticing that it did not have a pilot for the moment so that he could approach Orion in person. Seeing that he had the red and blue Transformer's attention, Kira immediately reached into his belt, pulled out the key to Vector Sigma, which was still fully packed with the collective wisdom of the Primes that the Matrix currently lacked, and said, "I think that I have something that belongs to you."

Orion looked at the key in shock, instantly remembering when Alpha Trion had entrusted it to him, despite his protests against it in the belief that he did not deserve it, and seeing this person who appeared to know him holding it out to him now not only reminded him of that day, but also prompted him to ask a very important question that he had asked his mentor when he received the key. "Are you…certain I am worthy?"

"Believe me, you have no idea how sure I am," Kira replied in confidence, and he immediately raised the key up in front of him until it released a beam of light that went directly into Orion's chest. When the beam connected with his chest, Orion was shocked to see it open up to reveal the legendary Matrix of Leadership within it, and a second later, his eyes widened a bit more as the Matrix was given back all that it had lost, while a thousand different memories seemed to flood back into his processor.

Galvatron and Le Creuset remained completely unaware of this as they continued their battles with Bumblebee, Athrun, and Waltfeld, but the two did manage to finally realize the reason why the former scout had not appeared on the battlefield until now was not because he was commanding the Autobot troops, but because he was retrieving the Matrix for his lost leader. This was further proven by the simple nature of the attack on their base here on Chaar, as it was now clear that Autobots and their allies were not fighting to either take down the base, but rather to act as a distraction so that they could retrieve Orion Pax and return everything the Matrix lost back into it. Having realized this, Galvatron quickly increased the intensity of his attacks on Bumblebee while Le Creuset managed to slip a few DRAGOONs past Athrun and Waltfeld to assist in bringing down the black and gold stripped Autobot, until Bumblebee received a hit in the area of one of the injuries he had sustained during his fight with the rogue Dinobots. The sudden onslaught of pain that resulted from being struck there served as the opening in Bumblebee's guard that Galvatron needed to finally pin the scout down, much to his pleasure.

"How nice of you to join our little reunion, scout. Now if you please, the Matrix," Galvatron demanded, fully expecting Bumblebee to defiantly glare up at him in response. He found all his expectations shattered when Bumblebee did not do any such thing, but instead, just gave out a weak chuckle. "What do you find so funny?"

"Well for one, the fact that you can't seem to remember that I'm not a scout anymore," Bumblebee replied with a smile. "And two, what on Cybertron made you honestly think that I had the Matrix?"

When he heard that question, Galvatron's optics immediately widened in horror before he turned to see Kira Yamato restoring the Matrix to its original status. Seeing this, the Decepticon warlord quickly tossed Bumblebee aside and ran towards the two as fast as he could, with Le Creuset doing the same a minute later after he finally managed to shake off Athrun and Waltfeld. Ultra Magnus and Cagalli immediately moved to intercept the two, but their interference did little to stop either of the two madmen in their charge, and soon enough, Galvatron was close enough to strike Orion down with the Dark Star Saber. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, for when he did bring the blade down, it was mere seconds after the Matrix had been restored, and the blade was immediately caught between the red and blue Transformer's hands with an ease that Orion Pax did not possess.

When Orion looked up to Galvatron, it was not with the optics of the data clerk he had once been, but with the optics of the enemy he had long since come to know, and when his battle mask snapped into place, Galvatron knew for certain that his greatest foe was now restored. A fact that was further enforced when Optimus Prime said, "Galvatron…be gone!"

With that last word spoken, Optimus immediately unleashed a powerful punch into Galvatron's face, forcing the Decepticon warlord back. Optimus did not let Galvatron off so easily, as he quickly charged up a minute later to deliver another hard hit to Galvatron, followed up by a left uppercut and a shoulder jack. Using his enemy's disorientation to his advantage, Optimus quickly managed to deliver another pair of blows to his old foe until he finally sent Galvatron flying away with one final and extremely powerful uppercut. Seeing all this unfold, every Autobot could not help but gain joyous smiles, smirks, and grins that showed clear as day just how happy they were to see that their leader was back, and those expression were all easily mirrored by every human who saw this as well.

Rau Le Creuset and the Decepticons, on the other hand, had less than enthusiastic reactions to Optimus Prime's return, as they were quick to begin retaliating with a new fury that resulted from the Decepticons wanting to avenge Galvatron's humiliation and Le Creuset's unbridled fury for allowing the others to keep him from realizing the truth before it was too late. Before Le Creuset could get very far though, he was once again intercepted by the Strike Freedom, which Kira had just climbed back into and had armed with the Star Saber. Seeing the blue winged machine carrying the massive blade made Rau laugh in amusement before he asked, "Do you really think that you are any threat to me with that sword, Kira Yamato? You can barely even lift it!"

For a moment, Kira said nothing in reply, but instead just hoisted the sword over the Strike Freedom's shoulder like he used to have the Strike do with its anti-ship sword when he was preparing to strike. An instant later, the Strike Freedom was charging forward and using every ounce of strength it had to bring the blade around to strike down the Advocate Gundam, all while Kira shouted, "Le Creuset, just shut your damn mouth!"

Le Creuset was shocked to see his foe wielding the large blade so easily, and his shock prevented him from evading Kira's attack before it caused the Advocate to lose an arm, a leg, and a piece of the disk on its back as a result. Seeing the damage he sustained quickly enraged Le Creuset, but he was unable to do anything to counterattack, as Athrun, Cagalli, Shinn, Lunamaria, Rey, Waltfeld, and Mu were all quick to reach Kira's side and start firing on the masked madman, while Smokescreen, Arcee, Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Springer, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee ran over to Optimus.

"Bumblebee, how did we end up here," Optimus asked as he readied his arm blaster, showing that his short-term memory had become a bit hazy due to the Matrix's restoration.

"It's a long story, Optimus," Bumblebee replied as he and the others opened fire on the Decepticons that were raining down on them.

 _"_ Seraphim _, to ground team. We're reading an additional Autobot signal that wasn't there before. Is Optimus with you,"_ Miriallia asked from aboard the Archangel-Class ship.

"Yes he is, Mir. We're all here," Kira replied to his friend, and he was soon greeted with joyous cheers from the crews of each ship, until Natarle cut in to the celebrations.

 _"If that's the case, then we're pulling out,"_ the _Seraphim_ 's captain stated. _"We're not going to risk losing anyone in trying to continue this battle when the mission's main objective is already completed."_

 _"Copy that,_ Seraphim _. Space Bridge generator is primed and clear for travel back to Earth,"_ Blaster soon reported.

When he heard that report, Optimus and Kira immediately exchanged a quick nod between themselves before they each shouted, "Autobots/Gundam pilots, fall back!"

Every single mobile suit and Autobot that had come on this mission was instantly racing towards the ship that they had traveled to Chaar in, while a few remained behind for a few more seconds to give the retreating forces some covering fire, and just before she left to return to _Omega III_ , Elita shouted to Galvatron, "This time, he's coming home with us, bastard!"

A minute later, only Optimus and the Strike Freedom were left, and just before he blasted off towards the _Eternal_ , Kira noticed that the Star Saber was emitting the same glow it normally gave off whenever Optimus wielded it, and quickly brought around for one last horizontal slash that immediately unleashed a destructive wave of blue energy on the enemies that were still attacking them. With their enemies thoroughly discouraged from attempting to stop them from retreating, Optimus and Kira immediately returned to the ships carrying the rest of their friends and allies, and once they were both aboard, the five ships immediately blasted off into the Space Bridge at their maximum speed, leaving Chaar behind even as Galvatron roared in outrage.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

For everyone who had remained on Earth, it felt like months had passed since the team had departed on their mission, when in reality, it had been nearly an entire day, and they were all shaking in anticipation for any news on what was happening. Thankfully, they did not have to wait for long, for at long last, Fixit finally reported that the Five Ships Alliance was on final approach to Earth and were all now docking at their respective, planet-side ports. They all had to breathe sighs of relief when they heard that, but they quickly became tense again when the New Iacon Base's Ground Bridge came online to admit the heroes that had traveled to Chaar into the base.

After a few minutes of waiting, everyone who had been aboard the _Seraphim_ came through, from Natarle Badgiruel and Miriallia Haw, to Sai Argyle and Mu La Flaga. When she saw her husband, Murrue immediately raced forward and embraced Mu as tightly as she could while holding little Caleb between them, while Feldt and Dearka both raced over to embrace Sai and Miriallia respectively. Of course, when Dearka ended up kissing his girlfriend, he was sure that she was going to kick his butt and immediately pulled back when he did realize this, only to be pulled back in but a smirking Miriallia as she returned the favor with a passion, much everyone's smiling amusement. The next group to come through was the team that was aboard the _Eternal_ , which prompted Aisha and Nicol to hurry over to Waltfeld and Flay so that they could also give them a loving welcome home, while Lacus quickly gave Kira a loving embrace that was so tight that Kira found himself wondering if his wife would end up stuck to him sooner or later. When the _Kusanagi_ team came through, Athrun and Cagalli immediately embraced each other to show how happy they each were that the other was still alive, before joining everyone else in scrambling to clear the way for the _Omega III_ team so that the Autobots would not end up stepping on anyone, leaving only one person to come through the portal.

A second later, that person did come through, and everyone was quickly beaming excitedly at the sight of the red and blue leader of the Autobots stepping into the New Iacon Base, though some were still a bit worried that he was still not entirely himself, and that was what prompted Lacus to finally let go of her husband and walk up to the Last Prime and call out, "Optimus?"

When his optics found the pink-haired chairwoman of the PLANTs, Optimus immediately retracted his battle mask to reveal a kind smile and replied, "Hello Lacus."

"Yes! The big guy remembers us," Dearka shouted with joy, voicing everyone's happy thoughts as the gathered humans all jumped and cheered for joy in hearing this.

The cheers quickly dissipated though, when Optimus looked to his modified sigil with a scowl and said, "Although it seems there is much I do not remember."

No one said anything for a minute, until Kira finally said, "That doesn't matter now. It may have been our darkest hour, but through it all, one thing was still certain, Optimus. You may not have remembered any of it, and your sigil may have been changed, but through it all, you were still the Autobot and the hero we all know you to be where it counted most."

Though Optimus's face had remained stoic after hearing this, everyone who knew him could tell that the corners of his mouth had turned up a little in a proud smile at hearing Kira's words, showing he was glad to hear that news and proof that he was right to entrust the Vector Sigma key to the young man before him. That smile grew a little more when he saw Murrue and Mu approach him with the former holding their recently born child in her arms as she said, "Optimus, I believe that you have yet to meet our son, Caleb La Flaga."

Optimus's smile was all the response that was needed as he kneeled down to get a better look at the small child in Murrue's arms, and when the baby saw Optimus's smiling face, it let out a happy giggle, almost as though he knew that a friend had now returned just as well as everyone else. Optimus honestly wished that this happiness could last forever, but there was one thing in particular that he remembered from his time in the Decepticon Base that he knew that he should inform the others of soon. That news was of the coordinates that he was forced to decode for Galvatron and Le Creuset, for if they ever completed the decoding process, it would spell doom for all the universe. There was just one small problem with delivering this news though.

As much as Optimus wanted to tell everyone about what he had discovered, when he looked around and saw how joyous and happy everyone was at the moment, he found that he did not have the spark to tell them anything about what he had discovered. In fact, he was not even entirely sure if he could tell them about what he could remember from his meeting with Predaking before he left the base, because he had no desire to sour such a good time with such terrible information. With all this in mind, and the knowledge that the Decepticons would likely still need at least another few days or so to decode the information without him, Optimus decided that it was for the best to keep that information to himself and simply enjoy the happy moment everyone was sharing for now, simply because he was home.

* * *

 ** _AN: Whew, well that's finally done, and Optimus is back where he belongs too! Pretty impressive, huh? And check out Kira using the Star Saber like he did. Not to mention it looks like Starscream is now more than ready to finally make his move, but the question is, just what will that move be? Well, I know what it is, but I'm not going to tell any of you until next chapter, so no spoilers for any of you!_**

 ** _Oh, and for all of you Age of Extinction fans, I hope you spotted those little cameos and references I made to said movie by including some of the Dinobots from that in this chapter. Now I know that I did not really specify who all was on Earth or Cybertron during the whole adventure aside from a few people, so I'm just going to tell you now, assume that most of the heroes were on Chaar for this chapter, while everyone else that was specifically said to be on one of the two planets was not on Chaar._**

 ** _Now then, I'd think that covers everything, so Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Secrets are revealed, and terrible discoveries are made known, as the Autobots learn of what Optimus remembers having discovered during his time with the Decepticons as Orion Pax, while Galvatron and Le Creuset retrieve the last piece of the puzzle that they needed from the encrypted coordinates. It's now a race through space between both groups in order to prevent the other from reaching the final goal so that they may determine the fate of the entire universe. When the two sides collide again though, a betrayal is revealed, and a new disaster is created amidst the chaos. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 20: New Chaos Unleashed** ** _. Brace yourself for lies on the other side of both the stars and that ominous light, Autobots and Gundam!_**

 ** _Please read and review, I'll try not to take too long in getting the next chapter done, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	20. New Chaos Unleashed

_**AN: Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a round of applause for the chapter that both ends the first arc of this story, and begins the second arc!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Thank you, thank you, thank you all! Yes you heard right everyone, this is the chapter that ends the first arc of Chaos Hunters and begins the second arc, and things are only going to get crazier from here.**_

 _ **Yzak: Yeah for all the guys that everyone loves! Meanwhile, I get put at the head of everyone who gets left behind again!**_

 _ **AN: Hey, it's not my fault that there's really no real direction to take your character in that I can see for this story. Just be glad you got that adventure on Velocitron and didn't get zeroed out of the story completely.**_

 _ **Dearka: Still, you can't deny that it's a little unfair how some of us are getting sidelined like this for a while, and not just in terms of us pilots either, but in the case of some of the Autobots as well.**_

 _ **AN: Well hey, I didn't want the second arc to be too long, and each chapter was going to focus on a certain pairing of Autobot and Gundam pilot, for reasons that everyone will be able to see, assuming you guys let me start the chapter so that they can read the author's note at the end!**_

 _ **Yzak & Dearka: Sorry.**_

 _ **AN: Thank you. Now, roll out to the chapter!**_

 _ **I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story**_

* * *

 **Chapter 20: New Chaos Unleashed**

When news of Optimus Prime's return reached the rest of Earth and Cybertron, the Last Prime quickly found himself swept up in multiple different press conferences with Kira, Cagalli, and Audrey so that he could help reassure the citizens of both worlds that he would be alright and was still able to defend them from the Decepticon threat that still loomed over them. In all that time though, since he was constantly being swept up in the constant praising of his return and well wishes, the news that Optimus had meant to share with the others had remained unspoken of, simply because he was constantly unable to say anything before being interrupted by some other matter that the others had insisted required his attention. Eventually, Optimus was able to inform Kira and Cagalli that there was something he needed everyone to know about, and the two quickly arranged a meeting time that everyone would be able to make it to.

When the day of the meeting finally came, everyone had arrived at the New Iacon Base as quickly as they could, and they were all soon gathered around Optimus to hear what the Last Prime had to tell them. "While I am sure that some of you do not wish to think about my time among the Decepticons, there is that had discovered during that time that I feel you should all be aware of," Optimus began, only to pause a minute later to run his hand over his fully restored Autobot sigil when he was reminded of the incident.

"Optimus, if it's too much for you to talk about, then you shouldn't try to force yourself," Talia tried to tell the Prime, but Optimus was not going to hear any of it.

"I appreciate your concern Talia Gladys, but this is not something that can be ignored simply because of personal feelings." Optimus paused for another minute to fully gather himself together again before he faced the group with full determination and revealed what he had learned. "During that time, Galvatron and Le Creuset had me working to decode a set of coordinates that had been deeply buried in the Iacon Data Archives."

"Wait a minute, how did they even get something out of the Iacon Data Archives to begin with," Yzak interrupted, raising a good point for everyone.

"The 'Cons had made several different incursions into Iacon during the war for Cybertron, and Shockwave was left to handle things on Cybertron in Galvatron's absence, so there's definitely a possibility that the 'Cons managed to get a copy of the information at some point without us ever knowing," Jazz explained.

"However it happened does not matter now. What does matter is what those coordinates led to," Optimus stated. "I did not realize it right away, but as I decoded more and more of the information regarding those coordinates, I discovered something that I wish I had never seen. The coordinates I was decoding…were those of Unicron's current position."

"WHAT," everyone shouted all at once, having not expected that to be what Optimus would tell them.

"Hold on a minute. How could those coordinates point to Unicron when he was destroyed," Lunamaria pointed out. "I mean, he is gone right, you know, because Optimus used the Matrix to purge him from Earth's core and everything."

"I did not destroy Unicron himself, but rather, I purged his essence from the planet's core," Optimus explained. "What I did not realize at the time was that in doing so, I had released his evil essence out into space, allowing it to begin returning to the empty shell of his physical form."

"So what you're saying is that after all the hell that we just went through saving Earth from Unicron, not to mention everything that happened afterwards, it was all for nothing because that freak of nature is still out there, and all we did was slow him down," Shinn demanded in outrage.

"I am afraid so," Optimus hesitantly replied after a minute. "And Galvatron and Le Creuset are currently seeking him out in the hopes of furthering their goals."

Hearing this news immediately made everyone feel that the good mood that had permeated the air for the past few days had just been shattered. They had all hoped that after the Autobots' adventure to Earth's core would have led to hearing the last Unicron once and for all, or at least for a great long time, but now, they had learned that not only had they just delayed his return, but instead, they had likely guaranteed that he when he did return, he would be stronger than before and he would be working with their greatest enemies. Add in the fact that the 'Cons knew where to look for Unicron, and there was all the more chance that their fight had now become nearly impossible to win.

At least, that's what everyone was thinking until Athrun thought of something that Optimus had not told them. "Did you manage to finish decoding the coordinates," the Infinite Justice pilot asked, drawing everyone's attention back to Optimus, hoping that he would give them good news.

"No, I did not, but unfortunately, I had successfully managed to decode a great deal before I had left to join all of you in the fight against the Decepticons," Optimus revealed. "I have no doubt that it would not take Soundwave or Shockwave very long to decode what is left of the information; however, there is still one last hope for us to stop the Decepticons from reviving the Chaos Bringer."

"Well don't keep us in suspense, Prime. We're all ears on what you're big plan is," Waltfeld encouraged.

Optimus nodded in response and then said, "While I did not decode all of the coordinates, I did discover the midway point between the Decepticon Base on Chaar and Unicron's current position, and if we move quickly enough, we can intercept the Decepticons while they are en route."

"But if we can't stop them there, then everyone in the universe will be facing Armageddon, right," Mu asked. "That plan's got a pretty big long-shot in the way of being successful."

"Maybe, but we don't have time to come up with anything better, so that's just a chance we'll have to take," Kira pointed out. "We should ready the five ships as soon as possible and head out with all of our best fighters. If this is going to be the final confrontation, then we can't afford to take any chances."

"Agreed, Kira, but no one should feel as if they are forced to come along on this mission if they feel it is too much for them," Optimus said. "All I ask is that if any of you have any great doubts, you let us know now."

"You know, I can't help but wonder why you even bother asking us something like that," Rey remarked. "You know that we're all going to come anyways, right?"

"Yeah, there's no way any of us are sitting this out," Springer nodded in agreement.

"I know that I'm not going to stand back and watch while the 'Cons bring back the greatest force of destruction in the universe, so you can count me in," Shinn stated confidently.

"Well I'm certainly not letting an upcoming Wrecker like Shinn go out there without me to watch his back," Bulkhead said.

"And I'm definitely not letting Shinn go anywhere without me," Lunamaria added.

"Can't let my partner go into this without her guardian, now can I," Crosshairs asked.

Soon enough, nearly every Autobot and human in the room was making it just as clear as those six that they were not going to sit back and do nothing, and Optimus and Kira had to smile in response to this before they ordered everyone on their respective teams to prepare to move out. Of course, not everyone was going to be going, as the Joule Team and their Autobot Guardians would be staying behind to keep Earth safe in the others' absence, along with Heine, Audrey, Banagher, Blaster, Ironhide, and Strongarm, but the amount of forces that were heading out on the mission was still impressive nonetheless. In no time at all, each Gundam and their respective pilot was aboard one of the four human ships while the Autobots had all boarded the _Omega III_ , and they were all quickly on their way to the point where they would face the Decepticons, hopefully to end this once and for all.

* * *

 **Location: Chaar**

Galvatron was not happy, to put it kindly. The loss of Orion Pax had set them back in decoding the coordinates of Unicron's body by days, if not weeks, and while the combined efforts of Shockwave and Soundwave were rather close to the same level as the former archivist's, there was still no denying that Orion Pax could have allowed them to gain that information a lot faster if he had not been restored to his right state of mind as Optimus Prime. It did not help matters when you reminded him of the fact that a great deal of the Decepticon forces and their base had suffered a great deal of damage or casualties, forcing him to divert a large amount of their resources into repairing whatever they absolutely needed, and if anyone ever ended up complaining a little about the extra workload, they found themselves on the wrong end of their leader's fury in no time at all, even if they were well out of his earshot and on the other side of the base from him.

Rau Le Creuset was not any happier about the matter either, but at the moment, he was able to keep his calm and help his partner in darkness to remember that they were nearly on the verge of success, and that certainly helped matters when they next spoke with their master, at least on their end of the things, because Unicron was not happy at all to hear about the losses that they had suffered. **"HOW COULD YOU LET THE LAST PRIME ESCAPE,"** the Chaos Bringer roared. **"Now he and his allies will know of our plans and set up the perfect opportunity to stop us!"**

"Lord Unicron, if I may explain, Optimus Prime did not decode the coordinates of your location before leaving us, so there's…" Le Creuset started to say, but he was soon cut off when a searing pain suddenly erupted throughout his body at an intensity that would have driven him down to his knees had he been standing at the time.

 **"THAT DOES NOT MATTER,"** Unicron continued to roar. **"The information he did uncover will likely help him determine where he can intercept you!"**

"You need not worry Master," Galvatron said. "With the Predacons still unquestioningly loyal to us, and the plan I have formed, the Autobots will be powerless to…ARRRRGH!" Galvatron was cut off from anything else he was going to say when he too was assaulted with the same agony that Le Creuset was.

 **"You would do well to remember that you cannot lie to me, Galvatron,"** Unicron reminded the former gladiator. **"Just as you would both do well to remember that I can easily send you both back into the hell holes that I had pulled you both from."**

"No, please," Le Creuset begged. "We can still finish this! All that we are asking is that you at least allow us to try! We're so close to succeeding, so what do we really have to lose at this point?"

 **"EVERYTHING, YOU FOOL,"** Unicron shouted as he increased the agony that the masked man was being dealt. **"If the Autobots succeed now, then not only will neither of you be able to achieve your goals or be given your rewards, but I will be denied my vengeance against Primus for all eternity! Just keep that in mind, and remember I will not tolerate any further failures, no matter what traitors from your ranks may interfere."**

"Yes, Lord Unicron," the two bowed in reply before the Chaos Bringer's presence left the chamber at last, and with it, the pain that he had been dealing to them both.

After gasping for breath for a few more moments, Le Creuset eventually found the strength to stand up once again and looked to Galvatron as he said, "I hope that whatever plan you devise does succeed, because I think it's rather clear that we are both on a very short straw at the moment with our master."

"I don't need you to remind me of what I already know, human," Galvatron snarled, angrily. "But you are right. If we fail now, then the Autobots will be the least of our concerns. Thankfully, we know where they will attempt to strike at us in our journey to Unicron's body."

"But isn't that just guess work based on what Shockwave and Soundwave had found from what Orion Pax managed to decode," Le Creuset pointed out.

"Perhaps, but I know how Optimus Prime thinks, and there's no doubt that he will likely have become much more vicious after our last encounter with him. He will be seeking to end us at any cost, and that need will lead him to take whatever measures he deems necessary to do more than simply stop us," Galvatron reasoned. He then chuckled a little as he left the chamber, saying, "That is something that I am counting on."

"You do realize such a move may cause us to lose a great number of our forces, assuming that things do go according to plan," Le Creuset said.

"A minor problem that can easily be rectified, and a sacrifice that must be made if we are to achieve our goals," Galvatron merely smirked in reply, gaining a similarly devious smile from Le Creuset as soon as he had said the words.

What neither of them knew was that Quicksilver had heard every word that had come at the end of the conversation, and he immediately raced to inform Starscream of the news as soon as the two had left his sight. When he did inform Starscream of this, he was surprised to see that the Seeker did not seem all that worried, but rather, he was actually grinning a little in anticipation. "Master, I don't understand," Quicksilver said after a few minutes. "Didn't you hear what I just told you?"

"Yes, I did," Starscream nodded.

"Then why are you not upset by the news," Quicksilver inquired.

"Because Galvatron and his pet do not realize that they have just made it clear that they have finally presented us with the opportunity that we have been waiting for," Starscream explained. "They will be so concerned with destroying the Autobots and achieving their ultimate goals, that they will not care what happens around them until it is too late, and when we do strike them down, we will be seen as the heroes who saved the Decepticons from being drawn into destruction by a pair of leaders who had descended into pure madness."

Quicksilver's concern was easily replaced by an excited grin when he heard this, and he immediately moved to the locker where he had been keeping the Requiem Blaster in all this time without anyone other than himself and his master knowing as he said, "Then I suppose that means it's finally time to use this?"

"Indeed, Quicksilver," Starscream said. The Seeker's face then became very serious as he added, "However, if this plan does fail, then I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you will allow me to take the blame for the attempt on Galvatron and Le Creuset's lives."

"What? But Master Starscream, I will be the one who will be handling the weapon and firing it, so if it does fail, then I should take responsibility for the action," Quicksilver protested.

"NO! I forbid you from doing any such thing," Starscream snapped. He then took a minute to calm himself down before he explained, "Quicksilver, if you were to do that, then you would suffer Galvatron and Le Creuset's wrath, a fate that I would not wish for you to suffer, my apprentice. You are to be the inheritor of my legacy should I fall, so please, allow me just this small token of selflessness, and give up my wellbeing for yours should it come to that."

Quicksilver was honestly touched, as he never in a million mega cycles would have expected Starscream to want to do something such as this for anyone, even him. The thought of Starscream likely having to go so far as to give up his life terrified him a great deal, but Quicksilver could still understand his master's logic, so he ended up being unable to do anything but give his word that he would do as Starscream asked, much to the Seeker's relief. With that having been said and done, the two moved to join the others of their little faction and the rest of the Decepticons in preparing for the battle that was to come, and whatever may follow in the aftermath as well.

What no one ever knew was at that very moment, Predaking was also preparing his brethren for the same battle. He was now more certain than ever that Galvatron and Le Creuset would not deliver on their promise to him, and he had no intention of simply standing by and acting as their slave for another moment. This feeling was shared by all the Predacons who were not mindless drones, and so, it was quite clear that nothing that Galvatron or Le Creuset could do would keep the Predacons from participating in the battle that was approaching in any way.

* * *

 **Location: The Maelstrom Belt, Almost a Day Later**

"Of all the places that the midway point to Unicron could've been, it just had to be the place where Thundertron and the Star Seekers make their base," Lunamaria groaned for what seemed like the third time since the Autobots and the large number of human allies had arrived at the asteroid belt a few hours ago. To be fair, no one could really blame her, as it was indeed the last place anyone would have suspected of being the point where the heroes would have to intercept the Decepticon forces, but thankfully, the various asteroids that made up the belt did give them a few extra advantages such as being able to hide the ships reasonably well until the 'Cons finally showed up and giving everyone some ground to use for in case they needed to use their vehicle modes, at least in the case of everyone who had a ground-based vehicle mode.

Still, Lunamaria's complaining about the fact was starting to wear on everyone at this point, including her boyfriend, who had finally had enough of it. "Just let it go, Luna," Shinn told the violet-red haired girl. "There's nothing we can do about it, so we're just going to have to live with it."

"Yeah I know, but still…" Luna whined in response, while they others just rolled their eyes at her in amusement while mentally thanking Shinn for finally saying something to her.

"Are we even all that certain that the 'Cons will pass through this area," Flay asked from her post on the _Eternal_. "I mean, wouldn't it make more sense for them to just use their Space Bridge to fly all the way there?"

"Under normal circumstances, yeah that would be the case, but this asteroid belt has certain properties about it that make it difficult to navigate through even with a Space Bridge," Springer explained from _Omega III_. "That's why just about every ship tries to avoid this area if they can help it, and if they can't avoid it, then they have to drop out of the bridge and try to fly through it the old fashioned way."

"A fact that we will be counting on," Optimus finished for the triple changer, determination and confidence clear in his voice.

Before anyone could say anymore, the scanner on each ship immediately lit up in alarm, and Miriallia ended up the fastest to confirm what they quickly suspected the reason for said alarm was. "Space Bridge opening just a few clicks away from our position," the _Seraphim_ 's CIC reported. "Enemy contacts confirmed. It's the Decepticons."

"How many of them," Kira asked from the cockpit of the Strike Freedom as he quickly raced through one final check of its systems.

"It looks like…all of them," Sai reported, much to everyone's shock. "Every single Decepticon is out there except for the Predacons."

"That's crazy," Jazz protested. "Why would bucket-head and his little masked psycho bring everything but their biggest hitters out for this?"

"I do not know, but at the moment, it does not matter. They are here now, and we must keep them from going any further," Optimus said, and he was soon down on the _Omega III_ launch deck with the Star Saber holstered onto his back, ready to give the order. "All ships, we make our stand here! Now roll out!"

The effect was instant, as nearly every Autobot save for Blur, Elita One, and Ratchet were soon out in the vastness of space and firing everything they had at the fast approaching Decepticon forces, with Galvatron meeting Optimus's Star Saber with his Dark Star Saber in a matter of minutes, and soon enough, the five ships were out in the battle as well firing every weapon they had. Once they were close enough to the battle site, Natarle opened a channel to all the human ships and ordered, " _Seraphim_ to all vessels, we're sending out our Gundams and mobile suit teams now! Send out yours the minute we've finished."

A chorus of confirmations was quick to reply to her orders, and soon enough, the Gundams aboard each ship was giving out their various call signs, going from the _Seraphim_ , to the _Kusanagi_ , to the _Minerva_ , and finally finishing with the _Eternal_.

"Mu La Flaga, launching in Star Force Strike!"

"Cagalli Yula Athha Zala. Diamond Akatsuki, heading out!"

"Shinn Asuka. Grand Destiny, launching!"

"Rey Za Burrel in Providence. Launching now!"

"Lunamaria Hawke! Core Wonder, I'm taking off!"

"Andrew Waltfeld. Gaia, heading out now!"

"Athrun Zala. Infinite Justice, launching!"

"Kira Yamato. Strike Freedom, let's do it!"

With those various battle cries given, the eight Gundams were quickly leading the charge for the mobile suit teams from the various ships, and thus, the battle that would likely end all battles had begun, and what a battle it was. Everywhere one looked, there were energon blasts flashing through the stars, and mobile suits exploding from either damage or just simply being destroyed, and various blows being exchanged between the various Transformers of both sides, and both old and new rivals clashing, and fire being exchanged between the _Nemesis_ and the five ships that fought for peace in a brilliant storm of chaos that was unlike anything any of them had been caught in before, even in all the battles that each of them had seen in the past. At many times, some of the various heroes of the universe found themselves facing overwhelming odds on their own for a few moments, but they were more than able to hold their own for quite some time until either the enemies around them were dealt with or someone had managed to provide them with some form of assistance, but no matter how you described it, there was no denying that both sides were fighting desperate battles with everything they had to give.

When Superion, Defensor, Bruticus, and Devastator all appeared on the stage of battle in a clash of titans, it became clear that everyone was fighting with everything that they had in order to win, and the numerous swarms of enemies that came flying after the Gundams served as further proof. Even the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice were a bit overwhelmed at times, despite docking with the METEORs from the _Eternal_ at one point, but no part of the battlefield was more intense than the area where Optimus and Galvatron were clashing their powerful blades against the other's with neither one of them holding anything back against their opponent, and eventually, their battle ended up being joined by another powerful clash between Rau Le Creuset and Kira Yamato that was equally intense, truly signifying how great a battle of good versus evil this really was. With the way things were going, it honestly seemed as though the battle could go either way, as neither side ever seemed to gain any ground, until something a bit unexpected happened.

Just as Optimus and Kira were about to clash against Galvatron and Le Creuset once more, a large blast of fire destroyed a massive meteorite that floated into the middle ground between the two pairs of enemies, and the explosion that followed seemed to echo so loudly, that every combatant in the field suddenly came to a stand-still in order to see what had just happened. What they saw came as a shock to almost all of them, as Predaking and his fellow Predacons soon descended onto the battlefield, only transforming into their robot modes when they were situated right in the middle of the leaders of both sides. When the various beasts did nothing more after they had reached their destination, a tense silence was quick to permeate the area as everyone waited for what would eventually happen next.

Galvatron ended up being the one to break the silence as he snarled, "I do not recall giving you and your brethren permission to join this battle, Predaking, but given the circumstances, I am willing to let this disobedient act slide if you can finally do what you were each created to do, and destroy the Autobots and their human pets once and for all."

Predaking just stared between Galvatron and the Autobots until he finally leveled a powerful glare on the former and gave a response that none of them were expecting him to give. "No, I will not do as you ask. I am Predaking, leader of the Predacons, and unlike the soulless shadows that your scientist had created in our image, we are not your slaves."

"You would dare to betray your lord and masters," Le Creuset asked in barely suppressed anger that was no doubt shared by Galvatron.

"You cannot betray someone you are enslaved to, nor can you really betray them when they have already betrayed you," Predaking commented. "We are well aware of how you had planned to do away with us once you were done and we know why. At one point, I may have been content to simply battle against you so that we could continue to exist, but now, I have a much greater reason to oppose you than just simply allowing for my kind to continue living. I have something that I want to do, both for my brethren and for myself. Most importantly, I want to do this…for my friend and her allies. That is why the Predacons now stand opposed to you and your monstrosities, Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset, and we will fight with the Autobots to end you and your schemes!"

When she heard what Predaking said, Cagalli could not help but smile brightly in response, knowing that she was most likely the friend that Predaking was referring to, and that this was just another piece of proof that anyone could change for the better if they were given the chance to. While Cagalli's happiness was shared by a number of the Autobots and human warriors, Galvatron's reaction to the news was the complete opposite, for Predaking's declaration had ended up being just the tipping point for the mad warlord's fury to finally boil over, and that fury quickly and gloriously exploded when Galvatron shouted, "DESTROY THEM ALL!"

The reaction was instantaneous, as the battle soon erupted back into the intensity it previously held while growing even further at the same time. As Abominus joined the Autobot combiners in their battle, the remaining Predacons were quick to charge into battle with various roars of battle, tearing through any Decepticon that stood in their way. For some of the heroes of Cybertron and Earth, fighting alongside the Predacons that had been trying to destroy them for so long was rather disorienting, but they quickly learned to adapt, right up to the point where many of them found themselves in a group up with any one of the Predacons multiple times over. At one point, Predaking even found himself fighting back-to-back with Grimlock, and the two were easily able to deal out a battle that could only relate to the one that had come about when Optimus and Galvatron had fought side-by-side on the mission to Unicron's spark, a fact that none of the Autobots who were on that mission had missed.

"Me, Grimlock actually having fun fighting with Predaking," Grimlock admitted as he ran his sword through a Vehicon that had tried to jump him and then tossed it into a Predacon drone that tried to do the same from another angel.

"The feeling is mutual," Predaking admitted. "But don't think this means that we won't have to settle our rivalry some day."

"Looking forward to that," Grimlock savagely grinned in reply, quickly getting an eager smirk from Predaking in response.

Predaking then destroyed a number of HorseMan mobile suits and Predacon drones with a few shots from his plasma cannons, but he somehow managed to let three of the four Seeker siblings try to come up behind him for a sneak attack until a last minute save by the Diamond Akatsuki drove them back. "Glad to see that you're fighting with us now, P.K.," Cagalli told Predaking as she fired her Gundam's arm blasters at Cyclops and some of his men when they tried to attack.

Predaking just gave the blonde a small nervous smile as he said, "I hope that I was not being too presumptuous when I had called you my friend."

"No, I don't mind at all," Cagalli shrugged in reply. "I'm actually glad to hear that you would consider me as a friend."

"Thank you Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala," Predaking nodded. "Now let us show these vile beings our combined fury!"

Cagalli only smirked in reply as the two charged in with their respective guns blazing, instantly instilling fear into anyone who fell into their combined paths after so many were brought down so effortlessly. From where he was fighting, Shinn could not help but stare in awe at how easily the two seemed to get along and fight together before he eventually said, "I don't know whether I should be amazed or a bit disturbed by the fact that it looks like Lady Cagalli managed to convince a fire-breathing monster like Predaking to join our side."

"I'd go with amazed," Athrun told Shinn as he slashed through a number of HorseMans, Vehicons, and Predacon drones with the METEOR's massive beam sabers before he disengaged the hardware and sent it crashing into Bruticus from behind, giving Superion and Abominus the chance to deliver a final blow that split the Decepticon combiner back into the five separate Combaticons. "There's really no other word I could think of to describe her right now. Well, aside from the various words I would usually use to describe Cagalli."

As the battle continued to grow in chaos, Optimus and Kira eventually found themselves in a head on clash with Galvatron and Le Creuset once again, but somehow, everyone had missed the moment when Starscream and Quicksilver broke off from the battle to begin moving into position for their own offensive against Galvatron. When they finally found the perfect position, Quicksilver brought the Requiem Blaster to bear and nodded to his master, signaling that he was ready. Starscream then nodded in reply and looked on at the battle between the leaders of the two sides before he finally said, "And thus with one fell swoop, all of my enemies will perish in a brilliant flash of light. FIRE!"

Quicksilver did not hesitate for a second to pull the trigger, and the minute he had, a massive burst of energy erupted from the Requiem Blaster and began barreling towards the four combatants that were at the heart of the battlefield. When the blast finally struck, it did so at just the same moment that Galvatron and Optimus had clashed the Dark Star Saber and the Star Saber against each other once more, colliding with the two great energies of the swords as it did. Starscream's plan had intended for this to happen, as he was sure that when the three colliding energies erupted, it would ultimately guarantee that Optimus Prime, Kira Yamato, Galvatron, and Rau Le Creuset would all be wiped out in an instant. The result that came instead, though, was not something that Starscream had planned on or expected at all.

While a massive explosion did erupt from the collision between the energies of the two swords and the Requiem Blaster, it did not cause any of the four leaders to be destroyed, but instead, sent them and the immediately surrounding combatants flying outwards from it as the energies seemed to start combining with one another to create a massive anomaly as a result. When Galvatron managed to regain his balance, he quickly looked to where the blast was fired from, and immediately spotted only Starscream standing atop the asteroid that Quicksilver had fired from, while the Seeker's apprentice was too well hidden for him to be seen. "STARSCREAM, YOU TREACHEROUS FOOL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE," Galvatron roared over the din of the energy vortex that was only growing more and more powerful.

That same energy vortex was quickly shorting out the computers on the various ships in the area as they tried to scan it, and if anyone on a distant planet several light-years away were to try and analyze it, their equipment would also have been shorted out after a few minutes. Just before he lost his scanners completely, Sai managed to discover something in the readings that he had to report. "Whatever happened just now when Optimus and Galvatron's swords collided with that energy blast, it seems to have created a massive anomaly that's just continuing to grow in relation to the energon levels in the immediate area. It's almost as though they've torn a hole in the fabric of the universe itself," Sai shouted over the explosions that were rocking the _Seraphim_. "There's no telling what could happen if anything were to get pulled in! We need to leave the area now!"

"ALL UNITS, FULL RETREAT! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW," Natarle instantly shouted in conjunction with Talia, DaCosta, and Kisaka, and no one was willing to argue with any of the four as they all immediately began returning to one of the ships or just attempting to get as far away as possible while the Decepticons did the same with the _Nemesis_. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to get clear of the event in time.

Just as they were about to reach the rest of their friends, Kira, Athrun, and Cagalli were all suddenly struck by an energy discharge from the event that suddenly lashed out at them like a bolt of lightning, and the three were soon getting pulled back in. When they saw what was happening, the Destiny Team, Mu, and Waltfeld quickly raced over to try and pull the three free of the event's grasp, but their efforts only served to lead them into the event's pull as well. At that point, none of them could even think about trying to push their thrusters to their maximum, as the energy that had struck their machines was now racing through them like a massive electric discharge, and the cries of pain that they were letting out were all the reason for Optimus and some of the Autobots to break off and try to help their friends.

Soon enough, Optimus had grabbed the Strike Freedom's hand while Smokescreen had managed to get a hold on the Infinite Justice, and Arcee just managed to grasp the Diamond Akatsuki, leaving Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Springer, Wheeljack, and Ultra Magnus to try and save the other five. By the time they had though, it was already too late, and the vortex was soon pulling them in as well, much to everyone's horror. Before he was pulled in completely, Optimus called out, "Autobots, no matter what happens, you must continue to press on! Never give up hope that we will emerge victorious no matter what may happen, for we cannot allow the horror that Unicron's return will bring to devastate the universe. Keep fighting for what you believe in, and for the peace and freedom of others until all are one!"

An instant later, another explosion suddenly erupted from the event, and the eight Autobots were soon being sucked into it along with the Gundams that they had tried to grab until they vanished completely. When she saw so many of their people were gone, Natarle immediately shouted, "Someone give me something that we can use to get them back!"

"That might not be possible," Jazz had to regretfully inform her. "We don't even know if they're still alive or not, and that thing's just gonna keep getting bigger until we're all sucked in. By that point, it won't matter if Unicron comes back or not because that thing will have already destroyed the universe."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Meyrin reported from the _Minerva_. "From what I can tell, that thing is starting to collapse in on itself and could close at any second."

"Is there any way we could try to keep it open," Talia asked the younger Hawke sister, knowing that it was likely hard for Meyrin to really focus at the moment since one of the people sucked in was her older sister.

"None that I can see, ma'am," Meyrin replied. "But I can say that if we don't leave the area, the resulting shockwave from that thing closing will tear us all apart in a matter of seconds."

"Could we take shelter in the Maelstrom Belt," DaCosta asked.

"No, if we did that and were careless about where we positioned ourselves, then we'd be torn apart by the asteroids inside of it, and we don't have the time to find a perfect spot," Natarle nodded. She then hesitated for another minute, weighing her options to find a solution that would work best for everyone, until she realized that there was not one with a sigh. "All ships, full retreat to Earth. The mission has failed."

"What?! We can't leave just yet," Kisaka shouted. "We still have people out here who may be alive!"

"But if we don't get out of here, we'll all be dead! If we want to help Optimus, Kira, and the others, then we have no choice but to leave now," Bumblebee argued from the bridge of _Omega III_. "All ships carry out Captain Badgiruel's orders and retreat at once!"

No one argued any further at that point, and once all of their people were aboard, with the Predaking and his Predacons joining the Autobots on the _Omega III_ , the five ships were soon flying away from the Maelstrom Belt and the event that was still continuing to grow as fast as they could until they were safely through a Space Bridge back to Earth. After watching the Autobots and their allies retreat, Galvatron had to smirk a little with pride at knowing that he had indirectly gained a victory here today over his enemies, but there was still one last enemy for him to deal with before they departed. Once all the Decepticon warriors were aboard the _Nemesis_ , the Advocate quickly isolated Starscream from the others so that Galvatron could grab him by the throat and raise the Seeker above him for all to see.

"Behold the fool who had nearly brought about all of our downfalls," Galvatron shouted to his forces, immediately causing most of the Decepticons to glare at Starscream in anger while the Seeker's most loyal followers just fidgeted a little in concern. Galvatron then pulled Starscream down and snarled, "I shall give you one chance to save yourself, Starscream. Tell me, did you act alone, or was this part of some greater scheme."

Starscream did not hesitate for a minute in his answer. "I acted alone, but that does not mean it was not part of a great plan. I fully intended to end you as the heartless beast you are, Galvatron, so that the Decepticons may regain the true glory that you have robbed us of the minute you appeared before us, claiming to be our fallen master reborn. I don't care what you do to me, because no matter what you do, I will never stop until you and that organic pet of yours are completely destroyed."

"Oh, I think you'll find that much harder to accomplish than you think," Galvatron snarled in fury, and the next thing anyone knew, Starscream's optics had widened in shock as he gasped in pain from Galvatron running the Dark Star Saber right through the Seeker's spark chamber. Starscream tried desperately to struggle against the agony he was feeling, but it proved futile in the end, and the eldest Seeker sibling soon fell limp as all life left his shell and his optics fell dark. "Let this be a lesson to all those who would stand opposed to me," Galvatron snarled in warning. "For I shall show no mercy to any who do."

Everyone left could only watch in horror as Galvatron then threw Starscream's lifeless body into the event that was slowly beginning to close, leaving everyone to only stare at the place where Starscream had started floating away from as the _Nemesis_ rocketed away from the area, just before the event that had sucked in the greatest warriors of the Autobots and Earth collapsed in an explosion that turned Starscream's remains into dust. Eventually, the crowd of Decepticons began to disperse until only the remaining Seeker Siblings and Starscream's followers remained, each unable to believe what had just happened. Though Slipstream soon left as well, thinking that Starscream had gotten what he deserved, none of the others so much as moved until Quicksilver stepped forward a little and fell to his knees in sorrow at the loss of his master. When the others saw his optics though, they were not brimming with sadness, but instead, they were burning with a vengeful anger.

"I will avenge you, Master," Quicksilver swore. "Even if I have to walk a dark path alone and chase after those monsters for the rest of eternity, I will avenge you."

Hearing the incredibly fast, triple-changer say those words seemed like all any of the remaining group needed to hear in order to find their own courage and determination to carry on with Starscream's plans, at least in regards to destroying Galvatron, Le Creuset, and the abomination that they had turned the Decepticons into, and they quickly proved as such when Knockout and Banshee led the others in joining Quicksilver by his side in that vow, with Thundercracker and Sky Warp rounding the group out. With that said, the small group of warriors soon left the area so that they could prepare what they needed to for their departure from the Decepticons, each determined to end the madness that Galvatron and Le Creuset had brought about in one way or another, never once wondering about what had truly happened to the Autobots and Gundam pilots that had been sucked into the anomaly that had destroyed their leader and friend moments ago.

* * *

 ** _AN: Well that all happened. Now before you all start throwing things at me for what I just did to Optimus, Kira, and all those other guys, let me just lay your worries to rest right now and say they are not dead. I repeat, they are NOT dead. Okay? There wouldn't be much of a second arc if I went and killed off so many heroes at once. The only one who had died in this chapter was Starscream._**

 ** _Dearka: Sucks to be him. I mean, not in the same way as it does to be us guys who're getting sideline, but it definitely sucks to be him since he's now been cut out completely._**

 ** _Starscream: I'm right here, you know._**

 ** _Yzak: Yeah, we know._**

 ** _Starscream: Pheh, whatever. Can I finally leave this place now?_**

 ** _AN: Sure if you don't want to stick around and see how things turn out in the end. Don't worry, I'm sure that if you all haven't figured it out by now, we'll be discovering the fate of our heroes in the next story. But then again, if you remember that ending author's note from Chapter 4 of Destiny Sentinels, then you probably already have a pretty good idea on what's happening. Here's a hint as to what's going on. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _As one arc in an adventure ends, a new one is unleashed, as Athrun and Smokescreen soon find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. Though there are a few familiar names with similar faces, there is no denying that the Transformers they meet after their arrival in this strange place are not those that they know. Mysteries are unraveled left and right as to what may have befallen their comrades, and discoveries about these Autobots and their mission soon draws them in as well, ultimately leading to the answer of a question that Athrun has been wondering for some time now. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 21: Another Armada** ** _. Infinite Justice, unleash the power within you for all to see!_**

 ** _Starting to get the picture yet? If not, then you will when the next chapter is posted, until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	21. Another Armada

_**AN: The war between the Autobots and Gundam pilots, and their enemies the Decepticons rages on, as they struggle to prevent the revival of the evil Unicron. If the Decepticons succeed in reviving the Chaos Bringer, then Galvatron, Le Creuset, and their demonic master, will destroy all life in the galaxy. The universe's only chance for survival, is for Optimus Prime, Kira Yamato, and the Autobots and Gundam team to destroy their enemies before it's too late, and now the battlefields have shifted. The Autobots and Gundam Team have now lost some of their strongest members to parts unknown, and those eight pairs of heroes must now face challenges and experiences unlike any they have ever seen before in a struggle to survive long enough for them to return home.**_

 _ **They have entered...**_

 _ **The Interdimensional Travelers Chronicles.**_

 _ **Kira: Uh, lyokoMARVELanime, what're you doing?**_

 _ **AN: Oh way to kill the mood, Kira. I was giving a cool little intro thing for both this chapter and the new arc of the story, and you go and do that!**_

 _ **Bumblebee: That still doesn't answer his question.**_

 _ **AN: Well given the universe that this take place in, I figured it would be nice to give a little intro like the ones that were done for that show back when it was still on the air, or at least like the show did in the English version. Speaking of which, if you readers can't figure out what Transformers universe this is by the end of this chapter at the most, then you either haven't been into the Transformers series for very long, or there is something wrong with you. No offense or anything, but it had to be said.**_

 ** _Athrun: No it didn't._**

 ** _Cagalli: Hey you, you don't exactly get to complain seeing as your practically the main star of this chapter. I've got to wait for the sixth chapter in this arc until we get to my story._**

 ** _Kira: Hey, you think you've got reason to complain? Optimus and I are the ones who have to wait until we reach the end of this arc before our chapter comes around, and that's only because..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]_**

 ** _Kira: [hears what sounds like an earthquake heading his way and immediately pales in fear] Please tell me that's not a horde of Kira fangirls._**

 ** _AN: Nope, but it is pretty close to being just as bad._**

 ** _Kira: [turns to see what's barreling towards him and then screams...] IT'S THE HULK!_**

 ** _Athrun: Actually, I think that's a Krogan, you know from the Mass Effect Trilogy?_**

 ** _Kira: I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS! I JUST KNOW THAT IT'S TRYING TO KILL ME! [runs away like a little girl while the Hulk, or Krogan continues chasing him in a blind fury]_**

 ** _Cagalli: Seriously, what was that?_**

 ** _AN: Just a little teaser thing for my Avenging Normandy followers. I never actually thought I'd have to do that to Kira though, but the spoiler he was about to give away involves something that is way too important to reveal even the smallest detail of. So, while Kira's running for his life, let's roll out to the chapter!_**

 ** _Do I really need to tell you that first time appearance characters who will be part of the main story will have their name's in bold at this point?_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 21: Another Armada**

 **Location: Wherever Athrun and Smokescreen Are**

Athrun could only cry out in pain as the anomaly's energy surged through his machine and body, and though the energy was not really all that painful after a moment, the mere shock of what it was doing was certainly enough to render that point moot. It even got to the point where he just barely registered Smokescreen and some of the other Autobots trying to save him and his fellow Gundam pilots before they were all sucked into the unstable vortex that seemed to be tearing the universe open at the seams. As he was flung through the vortex that had sucked them all in, Athrun got a small glimpse of the Diamond Akatsuki reaching out towards him and he quickly put what little focus he had left from all the spinning and shocking that he had now been subjected to in order to grasp the hand of his wife's Gundam. Sadly, it was all for not, as just when the two mobile suits' fingers had brushed each other, some invisible force whisked them both away from each other, and Athrun soon lost sight of everything when a flash of light suddenly forced him to shut his eyes as tightly as possible so that he would not end up blinded by it. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was the sound of the vortex around them and someone shouting.

Eventually, Athrun could feel himself regaining consciousness, though he was unable to tell for how long he had been out cold, but thankfully, he was kept from blacking out a second time when he heard a familiar voice from the outside of the Infinite Justice trying to wake him up. "Ath…Athrun…Athrun," the voice shouted until Athrun finally groaned to show that he was awake, much to the blue and yellow Autobot's relief.

"Smokescreen," Athrun moaned before he got a look at the unfamiliar surroundings they were in. "What happened? And where are we?"

"Couldn't tell you in regards to the second question, besides that we're in some kind of canyon or something," Smokescreen shrugged. "As for the first, all I remember is hearing something that sounded like a massive cannon being fired, a major flash, everyone shouting for us to retreat, and then me trying to keep you from getting pulled into that vortex before we both got knocked into temporary stasis." The young Autobot's face then grew serious before he asked, "Are you okay, though?"

"Yeah, I think so," Athrun replied as he ran his hands over his body to double check and make sure that he was not injured. Upon finding that he seemed to be physically fine, he then began running a check of his Gundam's systems before he added, "And it looks like the Infinite Justice is in one piece to, at least from my end."

"Well it definitely looks the same from this end too," Smokescreen informed his friend, and he then offered Athrun a hand to help sit the Infinite Justice up, which Athrun gladly accepted. "Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get in contact with any of the others. All I keep getting is static or just nothing at all."

Athrun was quick to try his own radio, quickly getting the same results as well. Seeing that their radios were not going to be of any help, Athrun immediately pulled out the Infinite Justice's keyboard and began rapidly typing as he said, "Hang on. I'm going to try and connect to Teletran One. Even if we're an entire galaxy away, I should be able to make even the smallest connection to let the others know that we're…"

Smokescreen did not like how Athrun just stopped what he was saying before he finished, but the Autobot found that he was unable to keep himself from asking, "What's wrong?"

"The codes aren't transmitting," Athrun revealed. "No, that's not it. It's more like they just stop transmitting before even trying to put a signal through for more than a few seconds. That usually means that the network is down, or that there's too great a distance between us and a nearby Teletran One terminal."

"Is that even possible," Smokescreen asked.

"You'd know better than I would, pal," Athrun reminded the Autobot as he put away his keyboard. "We'll have to try and think of something else in the mean time, but until then, we should try to lay low and…"

Athrun found himself interrupted by a loud explosion from close by, which immediately served to grab the attention of both of the young warriors. Seeing as they really had nothing to lose, the two immediately took off in the direction of the explosion until they eventually found themselves looking down on a valley where two different groups of Transformers seemed to be battling it out. A quick scan of the groups allowed the two to determine that the Transformers on one side were baring a Decepticon sigil, aside from one who also had an Autobot sigil on his chest with a large slash running through it, while the other group consisted of a group that were wearing that of the Autobots', save for one red and white Transformer who had the Decepticon sigil on both of the wings that extended out from his back. Seeing a battle between Autobots and Decepticons only served to confuse the two more than they already were, because if there were Autobots and Decepticons here, then they should have been able to send a signal to a Teletran One terminal due to the fact that nearly every Autobot base had one built in.

They shook off their confusion for a moment, as they soon realized that the Autobots down in the valley were starting to struggle in the battle, even after the red and white Decepticon that was fighting alongside them managed to fire a pair of laser blasts into the area of the Decepticons in an attempt to thin out the 'Cons' ranks a little. Seeing this made both Athrun and Smokescreen want to get into the action, but they knew that doing so recklessly would not be a good idea, because for all they knew, these two groups were not actually Autobots and Decepticons, but two entirely different groups of Transformers altogether who just happened to wear badges similar to the ones of the two Cybertronian groups, and Autobot regulations did state that making contact with unknown aliens was forbidden. The decision on whether or not they should help quickly ended up being unnecessary, as one of the Decepticons, who Smokescreen noted looked a lot like Cyclonus, suddenly broke off from the group and managed to swipe a small panel, and all attention was soon diverted to him as both sides started scrambling for the panel.

"Geez, those guys must really want that little piece of jewelry," Smokescreen commented.

"Considering who they appear to be, Smoke, I doubt that it's just jewelry," Athrun reasoned.

"So what should we do," Smokescreen asked. "I mean, I know we shouldn't interfere, but for all we know, those guys really could be Autobots and Decepticons fighting a battle that we didn't know about until now."

"Hard to really say, but I'd rather not take any chances. If those guys really are Autobots and Decepticons, then that means we can't let the 'Cons get away with that panel, whatever it is," Athrun replied after thinking for a minute. He then readied the Infinite Justice's arm blasters as he said, "I'll try to keep them busy. You get in close and swipe that panel away the first chance you get."

"You've got it," Smokescreen smirked in reply, and an instant later, he had transformed into his racecar mode and zoomed off towards the battlefield while Athrun blasted into the air. Bringing his scope forward to better align his first few shots, Athrun took a moment to carefully pick out his first targets, until the crosshairs on his scope blinked in confirmation that he had a full lock on some of the unknown Decepticons, giving Athrun all he needed in order to pull the trigger and fire his weapons.

What followed a minute later was a massive barrage of energon beam blasts from the Infinite Justice's arm blasters and shoulder cannons, and the supposed Decepticons were instantly raising their arms up in defense while scrambling for cover, while the Cyclonus-look-a-like was soon forced to come back down to the ground. When he saw the 'Con with the panel hit the ground, Smokescreen immediately took his chance and raced in before transforming into robot mode and running the rest of the way over. "Think fast," Smokescreen quipped as he spun around the Decepticon and slapped the arm holding the panel up, forcing said 'Con to relinquish his grasp on the object and let it fly into Smokescreen's other hand.

Seeing what the Autobot had done, the Decepticon snarled in response and prepared to fire on Smokescreen, but Smokescreen was too fast for the 'Con, as he had immediately activated his phase shifter and ghosted through the cliff face behind him just as the 'Con was raising his weapons. "Hey, what just happened," the confused Decepticon asked, making Athrun pause for a minute as he noted that the Cyclonus-look-a-like also sounded a little too much like the former Eradicon to be a coincidence.

"Cyclonus, you fool," the green, grey, and purple Decepticon with a pair of large horns shouted, confirming that he was the leader and telling the new arrivals who the Decepticon that Smokescreen had just evaded was. "How could you lose the Mini-Con so easily?!"

"You've got bigger problems at the moment, Decepti-creep," Athrun shouted as he brought the Infinite Justice into a hard dive, arming its twin beam saber as he went so that he could deliver a powerful double slash when he reached the Decepticons. The large Decepticon barely had enough time to move the cannon barrel on his back forward to try and shoot Athrun down, as the moment he had brought his weapon around, Athrun was already close enough and swinging his saber at the Decepticon, dealing a pair of slashes into the Decepticon's arm while simultaneously slashing off one of his horns.

"I don't know who you and your friend are, Autobot, but you will pay for this insult! Just you wait," the Decepticon roared. Athrun just prepared to launch another attack, but before he could even charge up his machine's thrusters, the air seemed to distort a bit around the Decepticons before they suddenly faded away before they vanished completely.

"…Uh, did we just win," Smokescreen asked as he finally stepped back out of the cliff he had ghosted into and deactivated the phase shifter.

"That we did, thanks to the two of you, friend," a deep voice answered, drawing Athrun and Smokescreen's attention to the various, supposed Autobots that had approached them. The red and blue one who seemed to look a lot like Optimus then stepped forward and said, "But before we can really give either of you any thanks, just who exactly are you two?"

Athrun and Smokescreen exchanged a look between the two of them, though one had to really wonder how they did so when the closest thing Smokescreen could see of Athrun's face at the moment was the face of the Infinite Justice, until Athrun finally directed his full attention at the Autobot leader and said, "Perhaps it would be better for us to discuss this back at your base, assuming you have one close by."

"Not a problem," the Autobot nodded in reply. "Red Alert, mission accomplished. Open the Warp Gate."

"The what," Smokescreen asked.

"Hold on a minute. Are you sure that's a good idea," the winged Transformer with a Decepticon sigil on his wings asked.

"Hey we let you into our base didn't we Starscream," a yellow and red Autobot asked, rhetorically. "Besides, one of these guys is clearly an Autobot, so there shouldn't be any problem, right?"

"Hopefully not, but we can't be too careful," a green and black Autobot with a pair of large treads for arms advised.

"Yeah well it'd still be better to do this at base than out in the open," a white Autobot with a red and gold head and a pair of large, grey wings extending up from his back reasoned. "Let's just get through the Warp Gate already and sort all this out later."

"Seriously, what's a Warp Gate," Smokescreen asked again, but the only answer he received was a sudden feeling of being stretched thin while being pulled into a different point. This was a feeling that Athrun was also experiencing, which was why he ended up joining Smokescreen in crying out in shock as they and the other Autobots suddenly disappeared from the area.

* * *

A minute after the group had vanished from the valley that they had been in they suddenly reappeared in a large, empty room that was colored dark blue with some hints of green along the edges. Athrun felt a little queasy at first, almost exactly like how he felt the first time he went through a Ground Bridge, but he was able to shake it off after a moment and join Smokescreen in following their hosts to their base's command center. As they traveled through the base, the two continued to glance around and they could not help but notice that the whole place seemed a lot like a modified, Cybertronian ship, much like how the New Iacon Base had started out as, but the thing that really got the two's attention was the other individuals walking with them that they had not noticed before.

Down by the other Autobots' feet, keeping a steady pace with their larger friends, were several different Mini-Cons of various designs, each sporting their own sigil that seemed to be in the shape of diamond with squares on each corner and what looked like a very decorative letter "M" on the inside of the sigil. In fact, there was at least one Mini-Con for each Transformer, with the number only increasing for the red and white one that the others had identified as Starscream and a white and black Autobot with a very large arm, each of which had four walking alongside them. The sight of so many Mini-Cons was actually quite surprising for Athrun and Smokescreen, as they had never seen so many Mini-Cons in one place before. Sure Blaster and Soundwave employed a small team of Mini-Cons each, but the numbers were never this great, so the two visitors had to wonder why it was that they had not seen so many Mini-Cons before now.

They would have to ask about such things later, as they soon noticed that they had just reached the base's control room, and all the other Autobots had now given them their full attention. "Let me start by thanking you again for your assistance in retrieving the Mini-Con, and saying welcome to Earth, Autobots," the red and blue Autobot began. "In case you were not already aware, I am Optimus Prime."

Smokescreen and Athrun were stunned now, but that shock quickly disappeared when they both found that they could not keep themselves from doing what they did next. They both burst out laughing like no tomorrow. This action confused each of the other Autobots in the room, if the confused looks they each wore were anything to go by, and after another minute or so, Athrun finally took notice of the fact and his laughter immediately died down. "Wait, you're serious," Athrun asked in surprise.

"Why wouldn't he be," the white and grey Autobot with large wings on his back asked.

"Because aside from the similar helmet design and the fact that he has the right color scheme of his armor, he's not Optimus Prime, and if this was Earth, we'd have been able to contact the rest of our team," Smokescreen replied.

"Maybe you hit your head or something during that battle, kid, because this is Optimus Prime, and every Autobot on Earth is in this room right now," the green Autobot with treads for arms remarked.

"No, we know Optimus Prime and the Autobots that have been posted on Earth, and not only have I never seen any of you on Earth before, but I've also fought alongside Optimus in two wars for both Earth and Cybertron, so I can tell you quite clearly that this guy isn't Optimus Prime," Athrun argued.

"Well you're both clearly messed up in the head," a blue and grey Autobot said. "None of us have ever seen either of you before, and there have never been any wars for Earth and Cybertron aside from the one we're in the middle of right now."

"Hey, I'd watch who you're calling a liar, soldier! This guy's not just any soldier, he's a war hero," Smokescreen snapped.

"Easy Smokescreen," Athrun told his friend in an attempt to get him to cool off, but he soon received quite a shock when one of the mystery Autobots replied to his words along with Smokescreen.

"Sorry Athrun/I didn't say anything," Smokescreen said at the same time as the white Autobot with a large arm, drawing everyone's attention onto the two in an instant.

"You know, last I checked it's kind of rude to answer for someone else," Smokescreen told the large-armed Autobot.

"I was just going to say the same thing to you," said Autobot replied. "What I want to know is how your friend even knows my name."

"He doesn't, and he was talking to me." Smokescreen was about to continue ranting, but he quickly managed to calm himself down and gave a small salute as he said, "Lieutenant Smokescreen of the Autobot Earth Division, at your service. I'm Athrun's Autobot guardian and partner."

"Wait, you're seriously saying that you're name's Smokescreen too," the large-armed Autobot exclaimed.

"Ever since I was created," Smokescreen replied, until the words he just heard sunk in. "Wait a minute, why would you be called Smokescreen? You don't even look like a 'Smokescreen'. If anything you more like a…hmm…What do you think Athrun? Hightower or Heavy Load?"

Athrun was a bit stunned that Smokescreen had managed to get them so far off track, but he figured he might as well indulge his partner if it helped calm down the intensity that was slowly building up and studied the Autobot in question before he replied, "I'm thinking Hoist, to be honest."

"Yeah, that's definitely it," Smokescreen nodded in agreement. "You look like a 'Hoist'."

The other "Smokescreen" looked like he wanted to say something in retort, but then paused and started to think it over until he finally smiled and said, "You know, I actually like the sound of that. Alright then, in that case, just call me Hoist from now on."

"Smokescreen, you can't be serious," the yellow and red Autobot moaned.

"Ah, ah, ah, buddy. You heard me. The name's Hoist now," the renamed Autobot stated.

Everyone just shrugged the strange scene that had just unfolded off after a minute before turning their attention back to more important matters when the Autobot who claimed to be Optimus looked to the Infinite Justice and said, "So now that we've established a way to avoid any confusion due to similar names, is there any chance we can learn your name?"

Athrun was a bit surprised to hear that, as he was sure that anyone from Earth or Cybertron would be able to tell who he was just by recognizing his Gundam. The machines were not really as much of a secret anymore, after all. Still, he figured it would become clear once he revealed himself, so he disengaged the machine's Phase Shift armor, letting the Gundam's colors change from their dark red and crimson to dull grey once he did, climbed out of his cockpit, and lowered himself to the floor using the boarding cable, only removing his helmet after his feet had touched the ground. "My name is Major Athrun Zala of the Orb Union Forces, a subdivision of the Sol Federation Forces. I'm also second-in-command of the joint Sol Federation-Autobot unit known as the Gundam Team," Athrun stated with all the regal procedure he gave whenever he introduced himself to other soldiers or diplomatic figures.

The strange Autobots that Athrun and Smokescreen were among held looks of surprise when they saw Athrun, and for minute, none of them said anything, until a blue and silver Autobot with a pair of guns on his back finally regained his voice and asked, "You mean…you're just a human?"

"Of course," Athrun replied. "How do you all not know about this stuff?"

"What stuff? A lot of what you two have said doesn't make any sense at all," a new voice suddenly said, and that was when Athrun finally noticed that he was not the only human in the room. Standing just a short distance away from Athrun, alongside a group of Mini-Cons, were three kids, two boys and one girl, none of which seemed to even be out of middle school yet. The boy standing at the front of the group, who had also been the one who had spoken up, had blonde hair and dark eyes, and wore a white shirt, a blue jacket, and tan colored pants. The other boy was clearly Hispanic, if one were to judge by his dark skin, and wore a brown shirt, a yellow jacket and blue jeans, while the girl seemed to be of Asian descent, and wore a red t-shirt and white jeans, while her brown hair stopped just short of the base of her neck.

When he saw the three before him, Athrun had to put a hand to his forehead and sigh, "Please tell me that there's a good reason why you have civilian kids here."

"Hey, don't go talking about us like we're not even here," the Hispanic boy snapped.

"The kids have been a very large help to us in our mission, and without them, we probably wouldn't have been able to help as many of the Mini-Cons as we have," the Autobot claiming to be Optimus explained.

"Even so, a military base is not a playground. I get that having them here would be a good way to protect them from the Decepticons, but they should at least have Autobot guardians," Athrun argued.

"Technically High Wire, Grindor, and Sureshock handle looking out for us, so you don't have to worry about that, and besides, we normally just watch over the action from here at the base," the girl informed Athrun, indicating three of the closest Mini-Cons when she mentioned the three names.

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't feel all that reassured by the fact that your safety is overseen by a trio of Mini-Cons," Athrun remarked in heavy sarcasm. "And more importantly, why didn't any of you report this to Optimus Prime or at least one of the Sol Federation leaders when you first exposed them to your mission?"

"We didn't need to report it to Optimus because Optimus is right here, like we keep telling you," the white, winged Autobot retorted, clearly starting to get a little impatient if his tone was anything to go by.

Athrun was about to retort again when he suddenly thought of something he had not before. "What year is it," Athrun asked, only getting looks of confusion in reply. "It's a simple question: What Earth year is it?"

"2002," the first boy to speak up finally replied after a minute. "Why would that be so important?"

"Because last I checked, it should be Cosmic Era 77," Athrun replied.

"Are you saying you two are from the future," the girl asked.

Athrun fell silent for a moment, thinking over everything that he and Smokescreen just learned before he finally replied, "No, not the future. Another universe, entirely."

"What? Okay, now _I'm_ starting to think you've lost it, Athrun," Smokescreen stated.

"Just think about it for a minute, Smokescreen," Athrun reasoned. "Remember what Sai said over the comm. about the anomaly we were sucked into? That it looked like a tear in the universe? What if that's exactly what it was? That would mean that we are in a completely different universe that, while similar, is still completely different from our own."

Smokescreen wanted to argue, but found that he could not, as there was just too much supporting Athrun's theory to really say otherwise. The fact that none of these people seemed to have seen a Gundam before, the Autobot who was claiming to be Optimus, another Transformer by the name of Smokescreen, the list just went on without end, really. Granted that it was still possible for there to be another Transformer who had the same name as him, but considering how rare that was to happen in the same life-cycle as another Transformer, Athrun's theory did tend to make more sense. After thinking it over for another minute, Smokescreen finally looked over at the Autobot claiming to be Optimus and said, "So I guess that would mean you _are_ Optimus Prime, just not the one that we know."

"You don't seriously expect us to believe that, do you," the red and white Decepticon of the group asked.

"You can think what you want, but after all that I've lived through, it makes a lot more sense than you'd think," Athrun replied.

"Red Alert, is there any way that you can help prove or disprove Major Zala's theory," Optimus asked a red and white Autobot with a blue head, arms, and legs, and a red visor for eyes and a red laser cannon in place of his left hand.

"I can certainly try," Red Alert replied with a nod before bringing out a set of scanning equipment. As the Autobot in question did his work, Athrun took a moment to look over the other Transformers in the room, and quickly found a few more signs that they were likely in a different dimension. The most notable being that each of the Transformers seemed like they simply folded up into their vehicle modes as opposed to how Smokescreen and the Autobots he knew seemed to shift several different parts of their bodies around until it was almost impossible to tell what they turned into until one saw them actually transform. It actually made them seem a lot like they were met to have some kind of action figures for kids, in all honesty.

Athrun was stirred from his thoughts once again when Red Alert's scanner suddenly beeped, and he immediately turned to face the blue and white Autobot to see what he had to say. "This Smokescreen definitely has a lot of similarities in his CNA to be similar to us, but at the same time there are also a number of discrepancies that would easily prove that what they are saying is true, and I'm detecting a strange energy reading that can only come from passing through an anomaly that would be capable of transporting someone to another universe," Red Alert reported.

"So these guys really are from another universe then," the blue and silver Autobot asked.

"Yes. There's no doubt about it," Red Alert replied.

"Wow, that's awesome," the Hispanic boy exclaimed.

"He's very easily impressed, isn't he," Athrun chuckled.

"Trust me, you have no idea," the girl shrugged in good humor. "Oh, by the way, my name's Alexis, and that's Rad and Carlos. Nice to meet you, Major Zala."

"The pleasure's mine, and just call me Athrun, okay," Athrun replied as he shook hands with the three kids.

"Sure thing," Rad nodded in reply as he exchanged his handshake with Athrun. "Now we just have to introduce you to the other Autobots."

"I go by the name Scavenger," the green Autobot with treads for arms stated with a smile.

"Private Sideswipe, reporting for duty, sir," the blue and grey Autobot saluted.

"My name's Blurr," the blue and silver Autobot with guns on his back revealed, getting a pair of surprised looks from Athrun and Smokescreen, seeing as this Autobot was very different from the Blurr that they knew.

"You can call me Hot Shot, 'cause that's what I am," the yellow and red Autobot stated with pride, immediately showing the two just how much like their universe's Hot Shot this one was.

"And you can call me Jetfire, second in command of the Autobots," the white 'Bot with large wings revealed, once again surprising the two at how different this Autobot was in comparison to the version they knew of.

"And I'm sure we don't need to reintroduce me, Red Alert, or Optimus to you two, but that does leave the newest addition to our team," Hoist remarked.

Looking towards the only large Transformer who had not said anything, and the room's lone Decepticon occupant, the red and white flyer seemed to hesitate for a moment before saying, "My name's Starscream. Former Decepticon second-in-command until Megatron betrayed me."

"Wait, Megatron," Athrun exclaimed. "So you're Megatron is still…well, Megatron?"

"Well who else would old horn-head be," Hot Shot asked.

"Long story," Smokescreen groaned in reply.

"You seem to be taking the fact that a Decepticon is on our team quite well," Optimus noted.

"Let's just say that this isn't the first time we've seen a Decepticon working with the Autobots. In fact, before Smokescreen, I was actually partnered with a Decepticon that joined the Autobots," Athrun revealed. "His name was Dreadwing, and he was an honorable warrior, a good soldier, and a great friend."

"I take it that means he's not around anymore," Blurr commented.

"No, he's not. He gave his life to destroy a weapon that would've wiped out all life on Earth…uh, my Earth, I mean," Athrun revealed.

"I'm sorry to hear of your loss, Athrun," Optimus said in a voice that showed just how sad he was to hear this news.

"It's alright. It happened about six years ago or so," Athrun said. "More importantly, what was it that brought the Transformers of Cybertron to Earth here?"

"That's…actually my fault," Rad admitted. "You see, Carlos and I were checking out this cool cave I found one day when we fell into a large chamber and spotted a Mini-Con storage panel. I didn't know what it was back then of course, but the minute I touched it, it sent out a beacon to Cybertron that the Autobots and Decepticons quickly tracked to Earth. Believe me, Athrun; I never would've touched that thing if I knew it would start a war."

"Hey, it's alright," Athrun reassured Rad. "You had no way of knowing and there's nothing you can do to change that now. The only thing you can do is help build a better future."

"And Rad's been doing just that along with his friends ever since we first met them," Optimus explained. "As I said before, they've been a big help in rescuing the Mini-Cons before Megatron and the Decepticons could get their hands on them."

"What's the big deal about the Mini-Cons anyway," Smokescreen asked. "I mean, they do a lot back home, but you're making it sound like it would be the end of the universe if the 'Cons got their servos on them."

"In way, that's exactly what would happen, Smokescreen," Optimus stated. "You see, here in our universe, the Mini-Cons possess a special ability to powerlinx with larger Transformers and give that Transformer a great power boost, sometimes even allowing them to access special weaponry as well, and if Megatron gets his hands on the Mini-Cons, then he'll be able to use them to increase his power to unimaginable levels."

"Yeah, each of us is partnered with a Mini-Con, actually, but unfortunately, so are each of the Decepticons," Hot Shot said as he indicated the Mini-Cons that were still standing close to one of the various Autobots.

"So basically, this war is all about one side recovering more Mini-Cons than the other," Athrun asked.

"No, it's much more than that," Optimus immediately said. "We consider the Mini-Cons our friends too, and we don't want them to fight unless they want to do so. Though it is often said that the Mini-Cons possess a power that will eventually lead all Transformers to live in peace, and that's all the more reason why we must defeat the Decepticons, so we can free all the Mini-Cons from being their slaves and finally live in that peace together as friends."

"I see," Athrun nodded in understanding. It was a great relief to hear such a thing, as the idea of the Autobots forcing the Mini-Cons to fight with them like the Decepticons would was something that Athrun did not want to think about even in his wildest dreams. Shaking such thoughts from his mind, Athrun decided that it would be better to just get back on topic and learn as much about this universe as he could and worry about comparing it with his later.

* * *

A few hours later saw Athrun wandering around the base while Smokescreen helped the other Autobots work on the space ship that they were building for their return to Cybertron, and as he roamed, he found himself thinking over what the two had learned about the world they had found themselves in. Apparently, the Autobots outnumbered the Decepticons here, at least in terms of forces that were on Earth, and neither side had any Vehicons or other troops helping them in the fight on Earth. Not only that, but the Mini-Cons held a greater part in this war than just being power boosters for the larger Transformers, as Athrun quickly learned that three of the Mini-Cons formed the Star Saber in this dimension. That was quite the shock for Athrun and Smokescreen, a fact that they quickly explained to their hosts along with the reasons for why, but not as much as learning that there were two other teams of three Mini-Cons that also formed powerful weapons that were known as the Skyboom Shield and the Requiem Blaster. When Smokescreen heard about the latter combination, he quickly explained that there was a similar, legendary weapon back in their universe that was said to have been created by one of the Original Thirteen Primes, and after what had happened to draw them there, he felt pretty sure that it was part of what had opened the rift in the first place.

In all honesty, Athrun did not want to put any bets on that, mostly because Smokescreen admitted that it was mostly just a legend and there was no other proof that the blaster even existed in their universe, but it was also because of the fact that the Decepticons had the Requiem Blaster of this universe in their possession. Thankfully, the Autobots had managed to hold onto the Skyboom Shield without any trouble, but no one was afraid to admit that the only reason they did not have the Star Saber any longer was because Starscream was in possession of it when he made his escape from the Decepticon base and joined the Autobots. Athrun had to pause for a minute to give himself a small mental shake when he remembered that fact, because in all of his experiences with the Starscream of his universe, the idea of the spineless, underhanded Seeker willingly joining the Autobots in any lifetime actually came off as being completely unbelievable to him. Of course, it seemed like the Autobots of this universe were having a rather difficult time trusting the former Decepticon, if the small sideways glances they were almost always giving Starscream were anything to go by, and Starscream was not really trying to give them a reason to do otherwise with how often his feelings got the better of him. Athrun could understand this if it was his universe's Starscream, but this Starscream seemed like he was honestly trying his hardest to really join the fold. This was a fact that the Optimus Prime of this universe also seemed to recognize as well, as Athrun overheard the Prime of these Autobots saying that they should try to understand Starscream and come to an agreement on how to best work together, so Athrun figured that he may as well leave things as they were unless they got to a point where he really needed to step in.

Athrun was suddenly stirred from his thoughts when he heard what sounded like party poppers going off, and he quickly looked up to see that the noise seemed to be coming from inside the room that was just a few feet ahead. Walking over and then standing outside the door, Athrun peaked in to see Starscream, his Mini-Con partner Swindle, and the Mini-Cons that formed the Star Saber had just walked into a little surprise party that had been set up by the three kids and a couple of their other friends, who he figured were the boys named Billy and Fred that Carlos had told him about. Before he could wonder just what was going on, he heard the five kids suddenly say, "Thanks a lot for the presents Starscream!"

"I…don't think I follow," Starscream hesitantly replied in uncertainty.

"Thanks for the rock you brought back from Mars," Rad then elaborated, shocking Athrun with the news that these Autobots had apparently been to Mars.

"Yeah, we never really had a chance to say thanks, big guy," Carlos said.

"And Alexis figured we should throw you, ya know, a little appreciation party," Billy finished. Athrun could not help smiling at hearing how these kids were willing to do something so nice for the former Decepticon, even after he had no doubt had a part in nearly killing some of their friends in the past. Sure it was partially because Starscream had brought them rocks from Mars, but the fact that they were doing this at all was really quite nice to see, and served as proof that Starscream could be welcomed into the fold for this team. The sentiment was only made better when Alexis pulled something out from behind her back and held it out to Starscream.

"We made this for you," Alexis told the former Decepticon.

Athrun watched as Starscream hesitantly reached out and accepted the large, hand-stitched cloth, and then look it over before he finally asked, "So…what is it?"

"A hand-made, polishing shammy," Alexis explained. "You can use it to polish anything. Even Runway for example."

Starscream glanced over at the three, flying Mini-Cons as the excitedly beeped in the sounds of various computer noises, reminding Athrun a little of the way that Bumblebee used to communicate before he had his voice box repaired as they did, before he nodded in uncertainty once again, almost as though he were confused or just did not know what to do. This seemed to worry Alexis a little, as she soon asked, "Don't you like it?"

"Uh no, no! I wouldn't say that," Starscream denied. "I mean it's very…colorful…It's just that I've never had anyone give me a present before."

"You can't be serious," Fred cried out in disbelief. "What about on your birthday? You never got anything!"

Starscream clearly did not know how to respond to that, at least if what Athrun saw was anything to go by, so instead, he simply asked, "So what does one do in a situation like this?"

"All you have to do is say thank you," Alexis told Starscream.

"Thank you," Starscream softly said, as though he were testing it out before repeating the words a little louder. "Thank you…right?"

"Yeah," the five kids happily exclaimed with a small laugh, causing Starscream to sheepishly scratch his cheek in response. Athrun's smile quickly widened a little more as he watched the kids quickly run up asking Starscream about what it was like on Mars, but his mood quickly changed when Jetfire came in before Starscream could say a word and rudely asked the former Decepticon to take over on monitor duty, instantly souring Starscream's mood as well.

"I'll never get used to the Autobots' work ethic," Starscream moaned in annoyance.

"Well I could always do it for you if you'd rather stick around and tell them about Mars," Athrun said, deciding that it was time to make his presence known to everyone.

"Hey Athrun," Carlos called out excitedly. "Where'd you come from, dude?"

"I was just wandering around and trying to stay out of the Autobots' way after I finished running a little maintenance on the Infinite Justice," Athrun shrugged in reply.

"So you're the guy from another dimension with a giant mech," Billy asked.

"Uh…yeah, I guess that's one way of putting it," Athrun admitted.

"Wow, that's so cool," Fred exclaimed. "Is there any chance you could let us ride it in sometime?"

"Sorry, but I'd rather not risk letting you guys accidentally trigger the self-destruct," Athrun lightly joked in reply as a way to ease his nervousness in talking to these kids.

"Hey no big deal," Rad shrugged, though it was clear that he was also hoping to get a chance to see what it was like inside the Gundam as well.

The mood that had surfaced from Athrun's arrival was suddenly interrupted when Starscream asked, "Why would you want to cover for me like that? You've admitted to fighting Decepticons for a long time now, so why help me out?"

Athrun simply smiled and said, "I also admitted to being partners with a Decepticon who changed allegiances over to the Autobots, so I know how hard it probably is for you to adjust to how they work. It definitely helps if there's someone around that can help make it easier for you like these guys are trying to do."

Starscream seemed to let that mull over in his mind for a minute before he softly muttered, "All this teamwork talk is starting to make me go soft." He then stood up from where he was kneeling down and said, "Don't let me bother you with it. I'll handle the monitor duty stuff. Besides, I can always tell them about Mars another time."

"Well I'm sure they'll hold you to that," Athrun told Starscream with a smile, and the former Decepticon simply nodded in reply and then turned to leave, throwing the kids a small, unnoticeable smile just before he disappeared around the bend. Once Starscream was well out of sight, Athrun then turned to the kids and asked, "So how's that Mini-Con that Smokescreen and I helped recover doing?"

"It still hasn't woken up yet," Rad replied a little sadly. It was true, because ever since they returned to the base, the Mini-Con that Athrun and Smokescreen saved from falling into the Decepticons' hands had yet to emerge from the storage panel, and the panel itself simply remained completely quite aside from the occasional flash of light every now and then. "I mean, this kind of thing has happened before, but that was only with the Mini-Cons who formed weapons like the Star Saber, the Skyboom Shield and the Requiem Blaster."

"So what if that's the case here," Athrun suggested.

"Couldn't be," Alexis argued. "High Wire, Grindor, and Sureshock all made it pretty clear that there were only three Mini-Con teams like that, and that all the others should just wake up after their storage panels were recovered, or a Transformer allowed a Mini-Con to scan their image so that they could provide a stronger power boost when they powerlinxed with that Transformer."

It was clearly a puzzle for everyone here who had some experience with this universe's Mini-Cons, and to be honest, Athrun was not sure if he even had a place to really suggest any solutions to the matter. There was a chance that the panel was a fake, but that option had already been explored and dismissed when Red Alert and the other Mini-Cons confirmed that it was genuine. Such things would end up remaining a mystery for the moment though, as Fred decided to ask Athrun another question when he said, "So what're the Autobots like in your dimension?"

"Hey yeah, you and Smokescreen seemed pretty surprised when you heard the names of some of the Autobots," Carlos remembered. "Are some of them Decepticons where you're from or something?"

Athrun paused to think for a minute before he decided that there was probably no harm in telling the kids a few things and said, "Well, Scavenger is part of a Decepticon team known as the Constructicons in my dimension, but aside from that, all the other Autobots are still Autobots where I'm from. To be honest, I was actually more surprised with how different they were personality-wise compared to their doppelgangers from my dimension."

"Oh yeah, like who," Billy asked.

"Well the best example would actually be Blurr," Athrun explained. "You see, in my dimension he isn't this cool, calm, collected warrior like your Blurr is. He's actually this really fast, and often really hyper guy who almost never shuts up. He can make the simplest report drag on forever, and the fact that he talks so fast makes it all the more annoying."

That got a laugh out of the kids, and soon enough, Athrun was telling them more and more about the differences between his dimension's Autobots and the ones in this dimension, with the kids hanging onto every word he said as he did.

* * *

Some time afterwards saw Smokescreen replicating his human partner's actions by wandering through the base. It was not that he was slacking off or anything, but it was more that he was not able to be as much of a help to the Autobots of this dimension as he thought he could be, at least in the way of helping them to build their space ship. There were just so many differences in the technology from what he was used to for him to really be able to adapt as quickly as they needed him to, so he figured he might as well find some other way to help out. The only problem was that he did not really know what he could do to help so he ended up just wandering around feeling rather useless, a feeling he had not experienced in a long time now. Eventually, he ran into Athrun and told him as much, but the only advice his friend gave him was to simply hang in there a little while longer, and that they would be able to start looking for a way back home before he knew it, that is assuming their friends back home did not find a way to get them back first.

This did serve to comfort Smokescreen a little, and when he overheard Carlos telling his friends to forget about tomorrow and just be happy about today before he, Rad, and Alexis left to take the Skyboom Mini-Cons on a walk outside the base, it helped lift his mood a little more until he heard someone screaming out in confused irritation. Running to the source, it did not take long for Smokescreen to find Starscream practicing with his wing-sword, and while Smokescreen was no expert in the area of sword fighting, it was still clear to him that there was something bothering Starscream and keeping him from really focusing on his training. Smokescreen figured that this was better than nothing in the way of helping out and walked in as he asked, "Think you could stand a sparring partner?"

Starscream just glanced over at Smokescreen for a minute before he swung his sword a few more times, saying, "I'd much rather practice alone right now."

"Come on. I may not be much of swordsman, but I bet I'm still a lot better than whatever invisible opponent your fighting is right now," Smokescreen encouraged.

Starscream then paused in his slashes to look over at the young Autobot before he finally shrugged and motioned Smokescreen over, saying that Smokescreen could use the Star Saber for this if he wanted. Smokescreen nodded in thanks and then watched as Sonar, Runway, and Jetstorm combined together into the white and blue saber sword while jumping into his hand, and then after taking a minute to get a feel for this dimension's version of Prima's legendary blade with a few practice swings, Smokescreen nodded to Starscream in order to show that he was ready. Starscream returned the nod with one of his own and then charged forward to test out Smokescreen's reflexes with a sword. After a minute or so, the two were having a very easy spar, with Starscream becoming pleasantly surprised at how well Smokescreen was doing despite his admission to not being much of a sword fighter. When the two clashed their blades again, Smokescreen took the opportunity to ask, "So, want to tell me what's bothering you?"

"What makes you think something's upsetting me," Starscream retorted as he parried the swing that the young Autobot threw at him and countered with a swing of his own.

Smokescreen barely dodged the blow and was soon on the defensive once again as he replied, "Oh I don't know. The irritated scream I heard earlier might've been a big clue, and I heard you were supposed to be a really good swordsman."

"What's that got to do with anything," Starscream questioned after he finally found an opening in Smokescreen's guard and used it to try and land a blow to Smokescreen's side.

Smokescreen managed to avoid the blow at just the last minute and then explained, "Because even I could tell that your practice swings from earlier were really off, and that kind of thing only happens to someone if something is bothering the person in question. So what's up?"

Starscream clashed his blade against the Star Saber and then held it there for a minute before he finally sighed in defeat and lowered the blade. "I had a run in with Thrust just outside the base a little while ago. You probably don't know who that is, though."

"Let me take a wild guess," Smokescreen offered. "Transforms into a jet, has a cone-shaped head that leads a lot of people to call him things like 'Squid-Head', and is supposedly a great tactician even though most of his plans don't usually follow through for one reason or another?"

"Yeah. He's Megatron's right-hand man now, but how'd you know all that," Starscream asked.

"There was a Thrust that was just like that back home, except he was actually a former Decepticon that joined up with a group called the Eradicons. I used to be part of the Autobot team that was hunting them down before I joined up with Optimus's group. I found out later that he died during one of the final battles of the war that took place a few years ago," Smokescreen explained. "Anyway, did you manage to chase him off?"

"Well…kind of," Starscream admitted, though he was not sure why he was telling Smokescreen this. After taking a minute to think about it though, he figured it was probably because Smokescreen was from another dimension so he was technically a third party in this conflict, and he then went on to explain, "You see, he wanted to make me a deal. He said that if I bring him the Skyboom Shield then he would help me be welcomed back into the Decepticons' ranks."

"And you told him to shove it up his tailpipe, right," Smokescreen asked.

"Well…that's actually where the problem stems from," Starscream finally revealed. "You see, part of me actually does want to return and eventually get back at Megatron for how he betrayed me, and that part can recognize the fact that it would be easier to do so from within, but another part of me says I shouldn't because I'd be better off here, even though the Autobots don't trust me. It's all making me so confused and the attachment I've started to form with those kids is making it all the harder to really decide for certain what I want, so I don't know what the right decision is anymore."

Smokescreen just let Starscream vent his frustrations, taking in everything that the flyer had told him, and when Starscream finished, he could gave him an understanding smile and said, "You know, I was actually in a similar position to yours once."

"I highly doubt that, kid," Starscream retorted.

"No really," Smokescreen insisted. "There was a time in my life when I wasn't sure what side I should be fighting for too. You see, the last war that Earth and Cybertron were involved in has become known as the Terrible Autobot Civil War, and that was because two different groups of Autobots were actually fighting with each other in a full-scale war. On one side were Optimus Prime and the Autobots that had saved Earth from being destroyed by Megatron and the Decepticons, while on the other side, you had the Autobots who followed Optimus's predecessor, and a fallen Prime known as Sentinel Prime. I actually started out on Sentinel's team, and for a little while, I believed that he was fighting for the right reasons, but when he suddenly declared that Optimus and his team were now our enemies, I quickly began to feel a sense of doubt growing. Maybe it was already there, but that action was what caused it to become real."

"So what did you do," Starscream asked, hoping he would not be upset by the answer

"I didn't do anything for a while, but eventually, something happened that made me realize that what Sentinel was doing was not what I wanted to happen. I joined the Autobots because I wanted to help make things better, and all Sentinel was doing was throwing things back into the chaos that was around before our war with the Decepticons began. So after that incident, I joined Athrun and another soldier in leaving Sentinel's cause and joined up with Optimus's team. I haven't regretted doing so ever since," Smokescreen finished.

"So you're saying, I should stay with the Autobots," Starscream asked.

Smokescreen wanted to say that was exactly what Starscream should do, and if it were a few years ago, he would not have hesitated in doing so, but he knew that would just be pushing his own idea onto someone else, so instead he said, "I'm saying that you should do what you think is best. It would be cool if you stayed with the Autobots, and I know a lot of people in this base would be happy about that too, but if it's not what you really want, then I can't force you to stay."

Starscream let that sink in before he finally nodded and placed his sword onto his back, letting it fold up into his left wing, saying that he was going to head up to the control room to speak with the others. Smokescreen was a bit concerned about what Starscream was going to do, so he quickly followed after the flyer with the Star Saber Mini-Cons hot on his heels, and managed to catch up just as Starscream walked into the control room where every Autobot other than Optimus was already gathered, and from where he was standing, it did not look good for Starscream.

"What do you mean Thrust told you to bring the Skyboom Mini-Cons to the Decepticons' lunar base," Jetfire demanded. "Don't tell me you've double-crossed us!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Starscream protested.

"But you do admit that you saw Thrust outside our base, right," Blurr pointed out.

"I just knew this would happen," Hoist snapped before Starscream could say anything, and that was all Smokescreen needed to hear before he stepped in.

"Hey, calm down," the young Autobot snapped before racing into the room and standing next to Starscream in order to show his defense for the former Decepticon. "Don't go pointing fingers just because of something he told you."

"Stay out of this, kid," Hoist snapped. "If it was just that then we wouldn't be pointing fingers at all, but the problem is that I can't find the Skyboom Mini-Cons anywhere, and right now, I can only see one possibility of what could've happened to them."

"What're you talking about? The Skyboom Mini-Cons are fine. I just saw them leaving to go on a walk with the kids," Smokescreen revealed.

When the other Autobots heard that, they all had the decency to look sheepish over how quick they were to accuse Starscream of betraying them, and for a moment, no one said a word until Hot Shot stepped forward and said, "Hey sorry about that Starscream. We shouldn't have jumped right to the idea of accusing you like that."

"It wouldn't be the first time it's happened to me," Starscream shrugged like it was no big deal. "Besides, I'm a Decepticon. It's in my programming, and that's all the reason any of you would need to not trust me."

"You mean you were a Decepticon," Hot Shot argued. "If you were still a Decepticon, then you wouldn't have saved me from being blasted apart by Megatron when we invaded the Decepticon base, and you wouldn't have convinced the Mars Mini-Con to fight back against Tidal Wave so that you and Jetfire could save him. If anything, I'd say that you've more than earned the right to be called one of us."

Starscream did not know what to say at that point. He was fully expecting Hot Shot or one of the others to agree with him and say that he was right in his believing he was a Decepticon, and yet, the yellow and red Autobot had insisted otherwise. It really amazed him how willing Hot Shot was to trust him, especially given how things between them started off when he first came to join the Autobots, but before he could really comment on it, Optimus suddenly entered the room wondering what was going on. "Sorry Optimus. We noticed that the Skyboom Mini-Cons were missing, and when Billy and Fred told us that they saw Thrust outside our base insisting that Starscream deliver the Skyboom Shield to their lunar base, we sort of jumped the gun in thinking that Starscream had taken them. At least until Smokescreen explained that he saw the kids taking them out for a walk earlier," Sideswipe informed their leader.

"I see," Optimus nodded in understanding. "I am sorry that everyone was so quick to judge you Starscream."

"That doesn't matter right now," Starscream protested. "I doubt Thrust really left the area completely, and if the kids are outside the base with those Mini-Cons, then they could be in danger. We have to get them back here, and fast!"

"Don't worry, we will," Optimus said, but before he could order anyone to go anywhere, the base's alarm went off, drawing everyone's attention to the main monitor just as Athrun had come in wondering what was going on.

"The Decepticons are heading this way," Scavenger announced to everyone.

"Autobots, move out and intercept them," Optimus ordered.

"Hold on," Starscream shouted, getting everyone to stop before any of them had set one foot out the door. "Megatron and Thrust aren't there with them. It's just Demolisher, Cyclonus, Tidal Wave, and Wheeljack."

"And why does that matter," Jetfire asked. "They're still coming after us so we've got to hit them before they hit us."

"No, this is one of Thrust's tactics," Starscream revealed. "He's hoping to use this battle as a chance for him to meet with me so I can tell him of my decision, and if it isn't what he wants it to be, he'll use the battle to try and convince me to do what he wants, all while everyone else is too busy fighting to even notice."

"And you're sure that Thrust is somewhere out there," Optimus asked.

"Positive," Starscream nodded.

Optimus seemed to roll this information around in his head for a minute until he finally looked up and said, "Then we'll let him think that you're giving him the answer he wants. I have a plan, but it's going to rely pretty heavily on you, Starscream."

"What," Starscream gasped. "Isn't that…a little risky, given how little everyone here trusts me."

"Maybe, but I trust you to make the right decision Starscream, and that's enough for me," Optimus said, and when Starscream heard the Autobot leader say that, he stared at Optimus in wide-eyed surprise for a minute before he finally nodded in understanding and moved to join the others in heading out to meet the Decepticon invaders.

"What can I do to help," Athrun asked, causing the Autobots to pause once more.

"Sorry Athrun, but I can't ask you or Smokescreen to join us in this fight," Optimus said.

"What? But we can help you guys," the Gundam pilot protested.

"I know Athrun, but the fact is that this isn't even your universe, let alone your fight, and I can't ask you to help us fight a battle that you have nothing to do with," Optimus reasoned.

"The Autobots are fighting the Decepticons so that everyone can live in freedom and peace. Seems a lot like the fight I've been involved in for about six years to me," Athrun pointed out.

"All the same, you weren't meant to be involved in our war, and besides, you have your home to get back to, and I won't take the risk of preventing you from doing so by allowing you to end up sacrificing yourself for our cause," Optimus explained.

Smokescreen looked like he wanted to protest, but Athrun just raised a hand to his friend and then looked Optimus straight in the eye and said, "Alright. I understand. I don't like it, but I understand where you're coming from. We'll remain here as a last line of defense, if necessary, but the minute we think that you need our help, we will be joining you out there, whether you like it or not."

Optimus nodded in acceptance of this deal and then turned so that he could finally lead the Autobots into the battle that was about to break out right at their front door. As they were leaving though, none of them ever noticed how the Mini-Con storage panel seemed to be reacting to Athrun's presence, nor did they even see when Athrun noticed this for himself and adopted a thoughtful expression as a result.

* * *

In no time at all, the Autobots were fully engaged in battle with the Decepticons, and they were able to gain an early lead in their offensive when Jetfire knocked Cyclonus out of the sky. Sadly, it did not last, as Demolisher and Tidal Wave quickly fired everything they had on the lone, Autobot flyer. It was actually a bit of a wonder why Decepticons like Wheeljack were even on the battlefield right now, at least until he suddenly transformed and started firing on the Autobots so that they could not try to retaliate against Tidal Wave, forcing the heroic Transformers to take cover before they could even attempt any retaliation. Watching all this from above, while completely invisible, was none other than Thrust, and he could not help but give a mental chuckle over how well his plans were proceeding. All he needed now was for Starscream to show up and start calling him out, and the Decepticon tactician did not have to wait long, as the former Decepticon soon came bursting up through the clouds in his jet mode.

"Transform," Starscream cried out as he shifted into robot mode, and not a minute later, the Star Saber Mini-Cons powerlinxed together, forming the powerful sword in his hand once they had. "Thrust! Show yourself!"

Thrust did not hesitate for a minute to drop his cloak so that he could fully appear before the Decepticon traitor, and the minute he did, he instantly asked, "Have you made your decision, Starscream?"

"I have, Thrust," Starscream replied confidently. "I think I'll stay put here with bots I can trust."

"You disappoint me, and you'll live to regret your decision," Thrust warned. "Starscream, I fully understand your desire for revenge against Megatron."

"You don't understand anything about me, Thrust," Starscream scoffed in reply. "I'll get my revenge because I have the tools to get the job done, so out of my way, or I'll slice you in half, you pathetic snake."

"Oh you talk a tough game," Thrust mused in a faugh-impressed tone. "Name your price, Starscream. Join forces with me and together we can take down Megatron! I too am a warrior on a mission; I aspire to lead the Decepticons to victory, and yet one obstacle remains in my way. A thorn, if you will and I intend to pluck it!" When Starscream did nothing to attempt to join him, Thrust went on to ask, "Why are you resisting my offer? You know there is strength in numbers, Starscream. So shall we unite and bring down Megatron together?"

"Why should I believe that you would want to bring down Megatron," Starscream asked. "You've always been his most loyal supporter, so what could possibly have changed that?"

Thrust honestly did not know what to say at that point, as he knew he could not tell Starscream his real reasons for betraying Megatron, but he knew that wouldn't matter soon enough. He would eventually find an opportunity to divert Starscream's attention away from that, and the battle below them would be just the thing to do that. All he needed to do was look down and find the right thing to grab Starscream's attention and help the seed of doubt that he had already planted in Starscream to grow even stronger.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Autobots were getting pounded away without mercy by Tidal Wave, who was still remaining in the air in his vehicle mode, and at that point, Optimus felt that he had enough of this aerial assault from the massive Decepticon, and he immediately turned to his second in command. "Jetfire, let's link up," Optimus shouted.

"Ready when you are, Optimus, sir," Jetfire nodded in reply, and a second later, the two had jumped into the air while Jetfire tossed his rocket-engine cannon and shield onto Optimus's back, forming a make-shift jetpack for the Prime to use in order to fly up a little ways. After flying after his commander a little ways, Jetfire transformed into a large pair of legs, with his wings folding down to sit on either side of the legs, and Optimus quickly followed up by changing into a large torso and casting the rocket-engine cannon away, leaving the shield to act as an extra set of white body armor, while his legs became the shoulder and arms and extended a pair of yellow hands out. As soon as the two were perfectly lined up with one another, the torso that was originally Optimus connected with Jetfire's transformed body, and a blue head with a yellow battle mask and horns, and red optics extended up from the top of the body, while Jetfire's blaster landed in his large, yellow hands.

"Jet Optimus, ready for action," the titans shouted in Optimus's voice before he used the rockets on his feet to blast off into the sky until he was above Tidal Wave. "Let's get busy!"

* * *

Back in the base, Athrun's eyes had immediately widened in awe when he saw what had just happened, and for a moment, he found that he was unable to speak. When he finally regained his voice, he was barely able to stutter, "Optimus…can combine…with Jetfire!"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, huh," Billy asked. "We were all pretty amazed when we saw it happen the first time too, although it was way cooler then since they did it in mid-air above the ocean."

"Yeah you should've seen how Optimus tore through all the Decepticons on his own when he did it the first time," Fred added in excitement.

Athrun could only nod in reply to the two before he turned back to the monitor just in time to see Optimus blast Tidal Wave out of the sky with a powerful shot from the cannon that was normally used by Jetfire, and he had to smile a little when he heard Optimus's voice on the radio say, _"It's time to sink you for good, Tidal Wave."_

"I still can't believe that this universe's Optimus is so much more open with his emotions than my universe's, let alone that he would actually give one-liners like that," Athrun mused aloud, inadvertently remembering how freaked out he and Smokescreen were when they heard this Optimus openly laugh out loud.

"Well what's your Optimus like," Billy asked, honestly curious about that when he heard Athrun's comment.

"Pretty much the same as this one, except he's more in control of his emotions to the point he almost never smiles unless he's among people he trusts, or his wife, Elita One, and a lot more…monotone," Athrun replied.

"Wait, your Optimus is married," Fred asked in surprise.

Athrun had to smile at how amazed these two were about the things he was telling them about his universe, as they seemed more excited about it all than the other three were, but he quickly schooled his own emotions so he could focus on what was happening outside the base, right at the moment when he saw Tidal Wave finally transform into robot mode at last. When he saw the massive Decepticon on the monitor, Athrun was honestly a bit shocked at the sight, and he noticed that Smokescreen seemed to be a little shaken, but they both quickly relaxed when they noticed that this Tidal Wave was actually not that much bigger than Optimus and Jetfire were while they were combined. If Athrun had to guess, he would say that the two combined Autobots were probably tall enough to reach the middle of this Tidal Wave's chest at most, and that seemed to put them at ease a little more for the moment.

* * *

Thrust continued to look down on the battle from above, mentally shaking his head a little when Tidal Wave was knocked out of the air by Jet Optimus Prime and then lost track of Hot Shot after the high-speed Autobot managed to land a blast in Tidal Wave's eye, and he was soon beginning to think that he could hold off on answering Starscream's last question for much longer, until he finally spotted the chance he had been looking for. That chance came in the form of Hot Shot racing across the battlefield while evading enemy fire with the Skyboom Shield in hand, until he finally reached Hoist. "It seems your friends have found what they were looking for," Thrust chuckled to Starscream, only to succeed in getting Starscream angry.

"I've had enough of you," Starscream growled before he swung the Star Saber at Thrust, but the sneaky tactician merely leaned back to avoid the blow as though it were barely even worth the effort.

"Why are you angry at me," Thrust asked. "I only wanted to form an alliance with you. We both want Megatron destroyed, but why do you insist on working against me?"

"How about we start with the fact that it doesn't make any sense as to why you would want that to begin with, along with the fact that I just can't stand you and go from there," Starscream shouted as he swung the powerful sword at Thrust again, only for Thrust to avoid the blade just like he had before.

"The decision is yours," Thrust then told Starscream. "You can either become soft and forget your glorious heritage, or you can join me, and if you decide the latter, it is only a matter of time until we drink from the cup of victory! Choose, but I suggest you choose wisely." Starscream said and did nothing in reply, and that served as a sign that Thrust was starting to get to him, so he pressed on by adding, "Your childish blathering annoys me, Starscream. You are a Decepticon! Now act like one!"

Starscream and Thrust just stared each other down for another moment or so, until Starscream noticed what the sign the moment he had been waiting for out of the corner of his eye and then lunged forward to deliver a hard punch right into Thrust's face before he dived down towards the Skyboom Shield that was hurtling towards Optimus. As he watched Starscream moving to intercept the shield, Thrust could only chuckle with glee at the sight of how his plan seemed to have been a success, never even entertaining the idea that he could be wrong.

* * *

From another perspective, it would seem that Starscream fully intended to keep Optimus from receiving the Skyboom Shield that Hoist had just thrown to him. It would also seem that Starscream was giving into his roots as a Decepticon and taking Thrust up on his offer. It would seem as though Starscream would end up betraying any sense of trust that he had gained from the Autobots after all the time he had spent trying to earn it while working with them. Thankfully, this was not the case, as the minute Starscream had the Skyboom Shield in his hand, he flew over Optimus and dropped the Star Saber into Optimus's waiting hand while shielding the Autobot leader from the laser storm that Tidal Wave was now raining down on them both with the powerful defense of the Skyboom Shield. A minute later, Starscream got in as close as he could, powerlinxed with Swindle, and fired his null beam cannons directly into Tidal Wave's eyes, temporary disorienting the massive Decepticon long enough for Starscream to slam the shield directly into Tidal Wave before he blasted away and allowed Optimus to swoop down on Tidal Wave with a powerful slash from the Star Saber.

"Nice work Starscream," Optimus complimented his teammate with a smile.

"I just hope I don't miss seeing the look on Thrust's face when he realizes just how greatly he had been duped," Starscream smirked in reply as he raised the Skyboom Shield up to block the enemy fire that was now coming from the other three Decepticons.

Thankfully, Starscream did not need to wait long for his wish to be granted, as Thrust quickly appeared a minute later, so completely stunned by what had just happened that he could barely even stutter, "W-what are you doing, Starscream?! Get the Star Saber back and then bring both it and the shield back to the lunar base at once!"

"I guess you weren't listening earlier, Thrust," Starscream quipped. "I said I'm staying with bots I can trust, and I have no intention of doing otherwise. Now back off and leave before I make you."

"You mean before _we_ make him," Hot Shot corrected as he came up to stand alongside Starscream with a smile and his blaster primed and ready to fire on the cone-headed Decepticon, who continued to splutter in disbelief at how grandly his plan in getting Starscream back with the Decepticons had failed, much to every Autobots' amusement.

Sadly, that amusement did not last, as a minute later, Starscream was suddenly hit by a surprise attack from the side and the Skyboom Shield quickly fell from his grasp before he hit the ground with a hard thud. Looking up to the shield, Starscream ended up being faced with the barrel of the large cannon that Megatron was aiming directly at him with a condescending smirk. "You know in all honesty, I never really expected Thrust's plan to work," Megatron admitted. "After all, I always knew you were an utter fool who let his emotions get the better of him and intended to take me out so that you could take over the Decepticons, but I thought that there would be no harm in letting him at least try to get you to see reason, Starscream." When his former second-in-command said nothing in reply, Megatron looked up to Optimus and chuckled darkly as he said, "Now Optimus, you will do as I say. Hand over the Star Saber and let us leave with the Skyboom Shield, or else this traitor here will pay the long overdue price for his actions right here and now."

Knowing that there could only be one reason for Megatron to want those six Mini-Cons, Starscream immediately found no reason to keep silent any longer and immediately shouted, "No don't do it Optimus! I'm not worth saving, so just forget about me and finish him off!"

"Forget it, Starscream! You're an Autobot, same as the rest of us, and we're not going to sacrifice anyone for anything," Sideswipe immediately snapped.

"Yeah that's right," Hoist agreed. "We stick together no matter the cost."

When Blurr, Scavenger, Hot Shot, and Red Alert all voiced similar agreements, Starscream honestly did not know what to think. Just a few minutes ago, all these different Autobots seemed willing to just throw him into the nearest star because they thought they could not trust him, and now, they were calling him one of them and saying that they would not let him sacrifice himself for them. It gave him a warm feeling that he never thought he could experience, but that was all the more reason for Starscream to simply ignore their pleas and shout, "Don't any of you get it! There's only one reason why Megatron would want only those six Mini-Cons, and I know that you each know what that is. He likely intends to harness that power that was unleashed when all three Mini-Con weapons were about to be used at once when Jetfire and I encountered him in Mars's orbit, and if he is able to do that, there's no telling what he'll do!"

"Oh I don't think it would take much imagination to figure it out, Starscream," Megatron chuckled in reply. "Now, if you are quite done with your stalling, I'd suggest you keep quiet and let Optimus hand over the Star Saber so that I can leave with both it and the Skyboom Shield."

At that point, Starscream had to smirk in response before he asked, "And what makes you think that you even have the Skyboom Shield at all? Dirt Boss, Downshift, Mirage! Now!"

Megatron did not know what happened, but one minute he was standing within arm's reach of the shield, and the next it had split into the three Mini-Cons that made it up, which then immediately raced away and back over to Hoist where they combined back together once more. Infuriated by this sudden tactic, Megatron was more than ready to blow Starscream's head off, but Starscream beat him to the punch by firing his null beam cannons directly into Megatron's face, giving him the chance to blast away from his former leader before the Decepticon could recover. "What just happened? When did you…" Megatron demanded.

"I had Swindle separate from me for a few minutes so that he could speak with the Skyboom Mini-Cons and tell them to wait for my signal for them to separate and get back to safety," Starscream revealed as the little, red and black race car Mini-Con in question moved to sit up on his shoulder. "That whole time I was telling the others to forget about me, it was all just to serve as a way to keep you busy while he did that."

"Nice thinking," Hot Shot complimented.

"Well I can't take all the credit. It was actually the same idea you tried to use when you were trapped on the moon with us to keep the Star Saber from falling into Megatron's hands," Starscream admitted to Hot Shot.

Hot Shot had to smile a little sheepishly in response to that, knowing full well about the time that Starscream was talking about, but the good mood was quickly soured when Megatron managed to stand back up again and roared in anger over the humiliation he had been dealt before turning to the largest of his warriors. "Tidal Wave, combine now!"

Tidal Wave just leapt into the air and then transformed and separated into three, small vehicles as he flew towards his leader. Megatron's torso then lifted up a bit, allowing the gun turret on his back to swing around to his front, with all of the guns moving to point forwards as Leader-1 powerlinxed with him, and a second later, the three transports that Tidal Wave had split into latched onto both of his arms and his back, giving him a massive shield on one arm, a large artillery gauntlet on the other, and a massive jetpack on his back. Once the combination had been completed, Megatron lifted up into the air as he declared, "And now I will make you all suffer!"

The Autobots could do nothing more than scatter for cover once again as Megatron and his reinvigorated forces rained fire down upon them all, making sure that there was nothing any of them could do in order to help any of their comrades without risking the likely chance that they would end up like Swiss Cheese as a result.

* * *

"Oh man, the Autobots are getting creamed," Billy cried out as he watched the team getting pounded by the Decepticons' assault.

"What do we do Athrun," Fred moaned, but when he received no answer, he quickly turned to where the Gundam pilot had been standing, only to find that Athrun had disappeared. "Hey Billy, where did Athrun go?"

Billy turned around to see what his friend was talking about, only to see no sign of Athrun anywhere in the room. A minute later, the base's alarm started going off, and the monitor suddenly changed from the battle outside, to the launch gate, where the Infinite Justice was standing, powered up and ready to move out, with its pilot seated in the cockpit. Before either of the two boys could say anything, Athrun's voice suddenly came over the intercom as the Gundam pilot said, _"Do you two know how to operate the launch gate from there?"_

"Well Alexis showed us how to in case of emergencies once," Billy admitted. "Why?"

 _"Because I need you to warp me directly above Optimus's current location,"_ Athrun explained.

"What? But Athrun, if you go out there into the middle of that, you'll be torn apart," Billy protested.

"Don't do it! I'm begging you! Please," Fred pleaded.

 _"This is not up for debate,"_ Athrun snapped, silencing both boys instantly. _"I've got to get out there, now. Smokescreen's already headed out to back them up, but if I don't get out there at just the right time, then it won't matter what he does. Please, you have to trust me."_

Neither of the two said anything in reply for a minute, but eventually they moved over to Alexis's computer and prepared to activate the Warp Gate. They were both very glad to see that Athrun had already managed to program the landing coordinates for them, as they were certain that they would not be able to do so themselves, and though they were still hesitant to send Athrun out into the middle of the nightmare that had developed, they still ended up telling Athrun that they were ready on their in. As soon as they had, Athrun gave them the order to activate the Warp Gate, and it was merely a second later that the transport system came to life, displaying the image of where Athrun would be traveling to directly in front of him while he felt the same sensation he felt the last time he used the Warp Gate overcoming him. Before he vanished into the Warp Gate, Athrun gave one final statement that seemed to ease Billy and Fred's nerves a little more.

"Athrun Zala, Infinite Justice, launching!"

* * *

Optimus and Starscream were both gritting their teeth in agitation and in an effort to ignore whatever pain they had endured from the hits they had recently taken, as they each had attempted to break cover and hit the Decepticons with anything they could give. Unfortunately, their efforts were wasted as every Decepticon immediately focused all of their fire on them the minute they rose up from behind the rocks they had taken cover behind, forcing them to take cover once more before either of them suffered any serious injury. The worst part of it all was the fact that they had exposed their location to Megatron, and he was now more than happy to have Thrust give the order to end the two at last.

"Now Starscream, it's time for you to pay for your treachery. Cyclonus deliver the final assault," Thrust shouted.

Cyclonus immediately cackled in reply, showing just how happy he was to carry out that order, and immediately began lining up his targeting sensors to fire the final shot that would end both Optimus Prime and Starscream once and for all. Before he could get a proper lock though, the world suddenly began to distort near him, and he was quickly seeing dark red as the Infinite Justice appeared above both him and his commanding officers. "Thrust, Megatron! Up there," Cyclonus shouted in warning.

While Megatron paid the warning little mind, due to how confident he felt whenever he combined with Tidal Wave, Thrust immediately looked up and saw the Infinite Justice barreling towards him with its right arm pulled back, ready to strike. "Remember me," Athrun shouted as he descended closer to the cone-headed Decepticon.

Thrust did not respond to Athrun's question and simply elected to evade the Gundam's attack by changing to jet mode flying away after he shouted, "Transform!"

 _Do the Transformers of this dimension always shout that when they transform, and if so, why_ , Athrun wondered to himself, but all the same, he figured that it would not hurt to follow the old saying of when in Rome, do as Romans do, and immediately hit the controls to change the Infinite Justice into jet mode as well as he shouted, "Transform!"

After he had said that, the Gundam rolled out of the swing it had thrown at Thrust and flew away in its jet mode, firing on any Decepticons that fell into its crosshairs as it went, much to Demolisher and Wheeljack's irritation. "Who is this guy," Wheeljack demanded as he readied his staffs to fire a few blasts at the Infinite Justice, but he was quickly forced onto the defensive when a barrage of energon blasts suddenly struck him.

"He's just one of the guys who are quickly becoming bad news for you and your pals, 'Con," Smokescreen quipped as he raced onto the battlefield with his Energon Bow still firing. When Wheeljack saw him, he immediately opened fire on the young Autobot from another dimension, only to receive a shock when the blasts went right through Smokescreen without doing any damage. Seeing the stunned look on Wheeljack's face, Smokescreen only smirked and said, "Awe, too bad. You can't hit me, but I can hit you."

Smokescreen was now close enough to blast Wheeljack at point-blank range, but before he could even charge up a shot, Wheeljack suddenly vanished from sight. Smokescreen was completely thrown off by this sudden move, but he managed to recover just as Wheeljack reappeared behind him an instant later to try and hit him from behind. "Looks like you weren't fast enough," Wheeljack mocked in reply before he vanished again to try another sneak attack.

Wheeljack's efforts did not succeed though, as this time, Smokescreen saw it coming, and spun around to fire a shot from his Energon Bow that hit its mark the minute that Wheeljack reappeared in its path. Once the former Autobot was down, Smokescreen walked over and glared down at both him and the scarred Autobot sigil on his chest before saying, "Be glad I didn't do any more damage to your chest than you've already done to it, because you don't deserve that sigil."

Smokescreen then moved away to get to cover and shut off his phase shifter, glimpsing the Infinite Justice as it flew past him. Just before it had flown out of hearing range, Smokescreen found himself unable to keep from shouting, "Go for it Athrun!"

Cyclonus did not seem to hear the Autobot from another dimension, as he had placed all his focus on trying to hit the Gundam that had thrown him off earlier, and soon managed to get a solid lock on Athrun before firing with all of his guns and those of his Mini-Con, Crumplezone's. Athrun immediately evaded the blast, but as he did so, he let something jump out of his cockpit and then fly back around to him. When everyone got a closer look, they saw that it was a Mini-Con that had taken on the vehicle mode of a smaller, blue and gold version of the Infinite Justice's vehicle mode. Athrun then switched his machine back into Gundam mode and shouted, "Let's do this! Powerlinx!"

The Mini-Con did not hesitate to obey Athrun's order, and immediately linked up onto the back of the Infinite Justice's large backpack, causing the machine's power to suddenly surge to new levels and finally be able to access the mystery function that had puzzled Athrun for so long now. The minute Athrun activated the control for said function, the cannons on the Infinite Justice's backpack ejected themselves from their position and extended a blade from their barrels before landing in the Infinite Justice's waiting hands. Though it seemed that Athrun would have to use them as swords at first, when the cannons landed in his machine's grasp, the Infinite Justice had actually ended up holding them as though they were sleek, bladed rifles. Athrun then spun his machine around and decided to take his new Blade Cannons for a test run by trying one of them out on Cyclonus. After pulling the trigger to fire one of said cannons, the blade of it seemed to spark with electricity for a minute before firing a powerful blast that knocked Cyclonus out of the air in an instant.

"Looks like Cyclonus goes down just as easily in this dimension as he did the first time back home," Athrun joked to himself, only for a series of beeps and blips to respond, reminding him that he was not really on his own at the moment. "Well I suppose you do have a good point," Athrun shrugged to the Mini-Con that had spoken, and he then turned his machine towards the other Decepticons so that he could confront them as well.

"What just happened," Megatron demanded when he saw Cyclonus go down.

"Was that the Mini-Con we just recovered in the last mission," Starscream asked.

"I think so, but how did Athrun manage to wake it up, and get it to powerlinx with his Gundam," Hot Shot questioned in reply.

No one had much of a chance to add anymore questions on the matter, as the Infinite Justice was closing in on the two combined Decepticons. As he drew closer, Athrun's Blade Cannons suddenly became alight with energy again before a pair of massive beams that were nearly the same size as the beam sabers he used when his machine was docked with a METEOR sprung forth from the blades of his weapons. Athrun then swung one of these massive beam sabers at Megatron, forcing the Decepticon to stumble a great deal after he tried to block the blow his large shield, and leaving Megatron open for when Athrun swung his second, large beam saber down on Megatron's back. The blow immediately sent Megatron flying across the battlefield, and when he finally hit the ground, the loud crash that followed made it clear that Megatron was not likely going to be getting back up.

With Megatron dealt with, Athrun quickly turned to the last Decepticon on the ground and charged in, prompting Demolisher to fire everything he had at the Infinite Justice in desperation. "You keep away from me," Demolisher tried to threaten Athrun in an attempt to hide his fear, but it ended up being all for not, as Athrun soon had lifted Demolisher up into the air after catching the Decepticon on the blades of his machine's newest weapons. "Help! He's got me! Put me down! Please, let me go! I hate heights!"

"You hate heights, and yet you work with the Decepticons; a group who's majority of its members are guys who can fly," Athrun questioned Demolisher.

"Just let me go, please," Demolisher continued to beg.

Athrun seemed to think about Demolisher's request for a minute, until he finally shrugged and said, "Okay. If that's what you want."

When he heard Athrun's response, Demolisher quickly realized his mistake and tried to prevent Athrun from doing what he was planning to do, for what little good it did. "No, no, wait! I was only kidding! Don't drop me! NOOOOOOOO!"

After Demolisher hit the ground below with a hard thud, everyone's attention was immediately brought to the crimson red Gundam that had singlehandedly defeated nearly all of the Decepticons on its own as it just floated in the air with its new Blade Cannons held down at its sides. Of course, not everyone was paying attention to Athrun, and it was a good thing too, for Starscream's lack of attention on the Infinite Justice allowed him to see a very injured Megatron preparing to fire the Requiem Blaster at the Gundam. Thinking quickly Starscream immediately blasted towards Athrun as he shouted for Hoist to send him the Skyboom Shield, with the large-armed Autobot granting the request a minute later. When Megatron fired the powerful gun, the blast only served to collide with the Skyboom Shield and create a massive burst of energy that served to blind nearly everyone, giving Starscream, Red Alert, and Hot Shot just the opening they needed to finish things.

"Swindle, powerlinx," Starscream shouted as he lowered the Skyboom Shield, and his cry to his Mini-Con was quickly followed by Hot Shot and Red Alert doing the same.

"Jolt, powerlinx!"

"Longarm, powerlinx!"

An instant later, the three Autobots were all armed with the special weapons that their Mini-Con partners allowed them to access, and they fired everything they had on the downed Decepticon leader, with Optimus doing the same with his own blaster an instant later after having Sparkplug and Cometor powerlinx with him. At that point, Megatron could tell quite well that the battle was lost, and he immediately ordered his troops to retreat. Once the Decepticons had all vanished through their Warp Gate, Optimus looked to Athrun and Smokescreen and gave them both a nod of thanks for their help in winning this battle in their victory.

* * *

A short while later, the team had all returned to base with everyone celebrating their victory and Athrun's success in awakening the previously sleeping Mini-Con, who had now assumed his robot mode and was standing next to the Gundam pilot. Looking at the Mini-Con, everyone could see that the wings from its vehicle mode served as large arm shields, while the thrusters and back of its jet mode extended down to form its legs. Its head held had a pair of small, squared horns on top while its eyes were a bright green color that shined like emeralds, while its mouth was hidden behind a gold mouth guard. While it was great to see the newest Mini-Con was no longer sleeping in its storage panel, there was still one question that was unanswered.

"How did you manage to get it to wake up," Rad finally asked Athrun, voicing the question for everyone in the room.

Athrun looked around at everyone in uncertainty before he finally shrugged and said, "I don't really know. I just felt like it was calling out to me, and somehow I knew that I had to be the one to bring him out."

"Well you don't hear us complaining," Sideswipe grinned in reply. "So what's his name?"

"You mean you don't know," Athrun asked.

"Well we don't really remember every Mini-Con's name until after they've joined our team, and with so many of them, it's sometimes a little hard to remember who's who aside from our own partners and the most well-known Mini-Con teams like High Wire's," Scavenger informed Athrun.

Athrun was not sure what to tell them, because he had not discovered the new Mini-Con's name either, but thankfully, said Mini-Con came to the rescue and trilled something to him that Athrun somehow managed to understand and translate as he revealed, "He says his name's **Blast Blade** , but can someone tell me how I'm able to understand him when I can't understand any of the other Mini-Cons?"

"That's actually pretty normal," Optimus revealed. "Every time a Transformer personally reawakens a Mini-Con, they form a kind of mental link that allows them to understand what that Mini-Con is saying better than any other Mini-Con. That is why I'm able to understand Sparkplug's words better than any other Mini-Con, or how Hot Shot can with Jolt, and so on."

"Makes about as much sense as anything else we've encountered in this dimension," Smokescreen shrugged in acceptance.

Athrun could not help but chuckle in response to that, but soon had his attention directed to Blast Blade again when the Mini-Con suddenly spoke to him once more. After listening for a few minutes, Athrun's eyes widened in shock, and he quickly asked if Blast Blade was sure about what he had said, only for the Mini-Con to give a few beeps of affirmative in reply. "What is it? What did Blast Blade say, Athrun," Starscream asked.

"He says that when Smokescreen and I finally find a way home, he wants to come with us," Athrun said. "Would that be alright?"

Optimus and the others looked between themselves in silence for a minute, unsure of how to respond, until High Wire beeped something to Rad. When the blonde boy nodded in reply to his friend, he turned to the others and said, "High Wire says that whatever Blast Blade wants to do is fine with him, Grindor, and Sureshock. After all, Blast Blade is one of them, and it's really Blast Blade's decision in the end."

The Autobots all smiled and nodded in response to this answer, before Optimus turned to Athrun and said, "Well there you have it, Athrun. Blast Blade is more than welcome to return to your dimension with you, but remember he's your partner now and not another tool, so make sure you look after him. Understand?"

"Yes sir," Athrun saluted with a smile, getting a few laughs and cheers from the others in response. Eventually though, the celebrations came to an end, and the Autobots all returned to their regular work, with Starscream saying that he would join them in just a moment before he walked over to Athrun with a questioning look on his face.

"Do you think I made the right decision," Starscream asked the Gundam pilot once he had reached him.

Athrun smiled and said, "I think that's something only you can know. A friend once told me, that power is whatever one makes of it, and that maybe I am a soldier, but above and beyond that, I'm still Athrun, and I think the same thing could be applied to you as well. No matter what you decide, you're still Starscream, so don't ever forget that."

Starscream smiled in thanks to Athrun for his words and then stood up to leave, but just as he reached the door, he looked back and asked, "What makes you so sure you'll find a way back to your home?"

"Because if I don't find it here, then I know that my friends who are still there will be able to find a way to get me and the others home," Athrun replied in confidence. "None of them have ever let me down before, and I doubt that they're going to start now. After all, we're more than just a team. We're like family."

Starscream nodded in reply to that and then left to help the Autobots in their work, determined to show that their decision to trust him was not the wrong one, leaving Athrun alone with Smokescreen, his newest partner, Blast Blade, and a silent prayer for his friends to come through for him again.

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Currently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID: ZGMF-CX19A Infinite Justice Gundam**

 **Pilot: Major Athrun Zala of the Orb Military, Gundam Team SIC**

 **History: Successor to the MS known as ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam, this machine is the second machine in the CX Mobile Suit series, following the ZGMF-CX20A Strike Freedom Gundam. Like the Strike Freedom, it was deployed before being fully completed during the Battle of Orb in the Second Bloody Valentine War, alias Terrible Autobot Civil War.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog: A device that was developed to allow mobile suit units to stand on equal ground with the Transformers, the prototype of which had been developed by Blue Cosmos thanks to assistance from Starscream during the First Bloody Valentine War. For more development data, see _File Designation: Artificial T-Cog Development_. It provides the Infinite Justice with a pair of arm blades and arm blasters as default weapons like all Gundams and mobile suits of the CX series. Upon completion, the Artificial T-Cog also granted the Infinite Justice the ability to assume a vehicular alternative mode, otherwise known as an alt. mode, after scanning a vehicle like other Transformers.**

 **Arm Blades: the default close-range weapons of the Infinite Justice Gundam, which can most closely be described as being similar to the arm blades of Optimus Prime before his reformatting.**

 **Arm Blasters: default long-range weapons utilized by all MS's of the CX series, the Infinite Justice's blasters can most closely be compared to that of Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime.**

 **Alt Mode: F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. This alt mode was selected by Major Zala as a way to honor the memory of his late, former Decepticon friend, Dreadwing.**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS :**

 **"Super Lacerta" Beam Sabers: Holstered on the skirt of the Infinite Justice, these beam sabers were included by default as all mobile suits of the Gundam Class typically carried such weapons. The two beam weapons are able to combine together to form a twin-edged sword.**

 **Beam Carry Shield: A physical shield mounted or carried on the Infinite Justice's left arm with is equipped with a beam shield generator and is typically used to carry a beam boomerang.**

 **Beam Boomerang: Typically mounted in the MS's shield, this weapon can function as a beam boomerang that acts well both in space and the atmosphere or as a handheld or shield mounted beam saber.**

 **Fatum-01: Typically known as the backpack of the MS, it serves as a flight pack in the atmosphere while carrying additional weapons such as the most notable pair of Beam Cannons that the unit typically uses for long-range combat situations. This feature can also be separated from the Infinite Justice and act on its own due to its AI system or via remote control, providing a separate support unit or a sub-flight unit.**

 **Blade Cannons: A recently discovered feature due to Athrun's travels to an alternate dimension, these weapons can only be activated one Athrun commands the Mini-Con Blast Blade with the Infinite Justice. These weapons were originally believed to be nothing more than the pair of Beam Cannons mounted in the Fatum-01, but when active, the two cannons both detach from the Fatum-01 and then each extend a long blade from the nozzles of the cannons. When held by the MS, they are typically held like a pair of rifles, however, they have been shown to operate as melee weapons. When fully powered, the Blade Cannons have shown that they possess the same capabilities as both the large beam swords and arm-mounted beam cannons of a METEOR Unit, allowing the Infinite Justice to have the most powerful aspect of the METEOR's arsenal without the extra weight and added limitations to mobility that a METEOR Unit would bring.**

* * *

 ** _AN: Well that's a wrap for the first chapter of the Interdimensional Travelers Chronicles arc, and in case you haven't figured it out by now, this chapter took place in the world of Transformers Armada. The fact that the Autobots and Decepticons were seeking out the Mini-Cons and Starscream was a major part of the Autobot team should've been a big give-away for all that, and if you'll also notice, I made a few references to other episodes from the Transformers Armada series._**

 ** _Cagalli: Speaking of which, it looks like most of this chapter actually took place during one of those episodes._**

 ** _AN: That's because it did. Namely, the episode in which...well I doubt I need to tell anyone who knows Transformers Armada which episode this chapter draws inspiration from, and unlike that episode, Starscream did not return to the Decepticons, but instead, remained with the Autobots. Yeah, like we haven't all wanted to re-write that moment so that it happened differently. As for what happens in this version afterwards, well that's up to your imaginations._**

 ** _Smokescreen: So why give Athrun a Mini-Con?_**

 ** _AN: Ah, I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the topic of Blast Blade. Simply put, the character in question is an OC I came up with specifically for this story, and the reason he's in here...well do I really need to remind everyone? It's so that Athrun can use that mystery function that was first mentioned a few chapters back. You see, the reason I'm doing a bunch of chapters that tell of what happen to our heroes as they experience these other worlds is not just for the heck of it, but also because they will also be gaining new experiences and powers that will make them better as warriors and people. For Smokescreen, this was helping him find someone he could relate to when it comes to his past, while Athrun gained the ability to use the Blade Cannons, and yes, I am calling them that, and I have no intention of changing the name, no matter how cliche it may sound. If you don't like it, then that's your problem. The reason why Blast Blade was needed to activate that function is because, as you'll recall, Athrun said that he was getting an "insufficient power" error every time he tried to use it on his own, but in the Armada universe, the Mini-Cons provide the larger Transformers with a power boost that allows them to use certain weapons that they normally couldn't use without the Mini-Cons. Make sense to everyone now? Good._**

 ** _Moving on, don't think this will only apply to characters that were in the same situation as Athrun, namely Lunamaria, because every character from the Gundam side of things at least will be getting a new ability by the time this arc is over. What those abilities are, you'll just have to wait and see, and maybe even draw up ideas based on whether or not you can figure out where we're going next from the preview, otherwise, [in a sing-song voice] I'm not telling!_**

 ** _Lunamaria: So are we going to another Transformers world next chapter?_**

 ** _AN: Nope, next chapter features another world from the Gundam multi-verse. Readers, if you're able to figure out what world that is, please don't give it away by guessing in a review. You wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who can't figure it out, would you? Speaking of which, Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The interdimensional adventures continue on with Shinn and Bulkhead, as the two friends find themselves in a world of Gundams unlike anything they would have ever expected. How can someone say that fighting is not always a bad thing, and what more could a warrior need to drive them to fight besides a reason to protect and save others? These are questions that are filling Shinn's mind the longer he stays in this world, and it would seem that it would take a man who's fists burn with a true warrior's soul to lead him to the answer, while Shinn aids that same man in his quest to save those he cares about. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 22: Warrior's Soul** ** _. Grand Destiny, follow the loud roar that tells you to grasp victory!_**

 ** _I don't know if it's possible, but I think I can't make it anymore obvious where Shinn and Bulkhead are going to end up next chapter._**

 ** _Athrun: Uh guys, I think Kira's still being chased by...whatever it is that lyokoMARVEL set on him._**

 ** _AN: Oh, yeah I should probably go take of that. Why is it these things always seem to go out of control nowadays? Any who..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	22. Warrior's Soul

_**AN: Hey guys, I'm back again with another chapter of Chaos Hunters, and I feel I really must apologize for the rate of this story's updates recently, but you see, with all the superhero hype that's out and about now-a-days, like with Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice coming out soon and the recently released new trailer for Captain America: Civil War, I just can't seem to focus all that much on ideas like this one as much as I'd like. Don't worry though, I assure you that I'm going to try and put as much of my focus into this story as possible for a while, or at least until we get to the end of this 2nd major arc so that I don't leave all hanging on the excitment that will unfold in the various Gundam and Transformers dimensions, so there's no need to worry about that.**_

 _ **Bumblebee: You know, I actually just watched the newest trailer for Captain America: Civil War, and I can honestly say that I don't blame you for being more hyped up on the superhero stuff. And I'm not just saying that because Spider-Man was finally in a trailer for that movie, which was awesome, if you don't account for what he did in said trailer!**_

 _ **AN: I know right?! Finally! After so much talk and stuff, we finally get a first look at the MCU Spider-Man! And while it was cool to see him in the pose he struck in the trailer, I have to say, the web-head should be ashamed of himself for swiping Cap's shield like that. Uh, sorry for the spoiler for those of you who have not seen that trailer yet.**_

 _ **Spider-Man: Hey, don't hate on me! I was clearly on the wrong team at the time, and besides, if this movie is going to be anything like the comics version of Civil War, then I'll obviously join up with Cap's team at some point.**_

 _ **AN: Well, here's hoping on that.**_

 _ **Cagalli: Hang on, aren't you wondering how Spidey even got in here? Not that I mind him being here or anything, especially while he's in that suit of his [looks at Spider-Man with a very seductive glance]**_

 _ **Athrun: I hope you're joking about that.**_

 _ **Cagalli: Hey, I can't help but look, and besides, he's not my type. Way too talkative and definitely way too many bad jokes.**_

 _ **Athrun: Just checking. [Throws a warning glare at Spider-Man all the same along with the "I'm watching you" gesture] Seriously though, why is he here right now?**_

 ** _AN: Well I did say that I've had superheroes on the mind a lot lately, and besides, you seem to be forgetting that Spider-Man is part of MARVEL just like Captain America, and I am also currently working on a Gundam SEED &Captain America crossover as well._**

 ** _Dearka: Does that mean that Spider-Man's going to be in Shield of the Cosmic Era at some point?_**

 ** _AN: It might, but I'm not telling, and I know none of you are going to tell either, right? [hands waves over spoiler prevention remote threateningly]_**

 ** _SoTCE Cast That's Present: No sir!_**

 ** _AN: Good. Now, it's Shinn and Bulkhead's turn for the spotlight, so let's roll out for the chapter! Or as they used to say at the start of today's feature universe..._**

 ** _Gundam Fight all set! Ready...GO!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 22: Warrior's Soul**

 **Location: Wherever Shinn and Bulkhead Are**

Shinn was not entirely sure what was happening right now. One minute he was battling the Decepticons and Le Creuset's forces alongside the Autobots and his fellow Gundam pilots, and the next thing he knew, Kira and Optimus were shouting for everyone to get out of the area just before he, Lunamaria, Rey, and some of his other fellow pilots were caught in some kind anomaly that had suddenly appeared after a clash between Optimus and Galvatron's swords and a third energy burst from the nearby asteroid belt. To make matters worse, Bulkhead and the other Autobots' efforts to save them did not make any difference at all, and in no time at all, they were all sucked in and being thrown about like an abandoned surf board in the middle of a massive storm at sea. Eventually, he even found himself losing sight of Lunamaria and the others save for Bulkhead, and all his efforts to remain conscious ended up being in vain when a bright light suddenly flashed before his eyes and caused him to black out.

There was no telling how long Shinn was unconscious for, but thankfully, the sound of Bulkhead's voice calling out to him eventually managed to stir him back to his senses. "Hey Shinn, are you okay," Bulkhead continued to call out even after Shinn had finally woken up.

"Yeah…Yeah I think so, Bulk," Shinn finally replied as he moved the Grand Destiny a little as an early test of its basic systems. After confirming that the machine could still move, Shinn ran all the various diagnostic checks that he could on the Gundam's systems and eventually breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everything in his machine seemed to be in working order before he turned to his friend and childhood hero. "What about you? Are you okay?"

"A few aches and small dents, but nothing too serious," Bulkhead admitted as he stretched his arms a little. "But more importantly, we've gotta figure out where we are so we can contact the others and get a rescue team out here."

"Wait, you mean you don't know where we are," Shinn asked in surprise.

"Hey I'm a Wrecker, and before that I was in construction. Mapping and navigation isn't really my thing, hence the reason why I've never been at the helm controls of any ship that I've served on," Bulkhead pointed out. "Besides, I don't really trust my judgment right now because something about this place feels a little too much like Earth to me, even though I'm pretty sure that it's not Earth."

Shinn quirked an eyebrow in surprise at the latter statement as he activated the Grand Destiny's scanners and navigational tracking system, only to widen his eyes and gasp in shock when he saw what the readouts were telling him. "Bulkhead…I think this is Earth," Shinn revealed. "Or at least, it's supposed to be, because the Grand Destiny's scanners are saying that we're supposed to be in Hong Kong City."

"What," Bulkhead gasped. "But that's impossible. I'm not picking up even the faintest sign of a Teletran One station or even another Autobot signal, and New Iacon isn't really that far from Hong Kong. Besides, just look around this place. I know the various Earth cities suffered a lot of damage in some of the more recent years due to the wars and the fall of Junius Seven, but last I checked, a good majority of that damage had been reversed in some way, and this place looks like a lot of it has been in ruins for several years."

Bulkhead was not wrong in his observation, as a quick glance around the area showed Shinn that a great deal of their current area was in fact lying in ruin. Rubble was piled up in heaps around almost every corner, right to the point where it was hard to tell what had been a building and what was just some sort of wall, pipes were embedded in the ground while being twisted to various angles, and a number of massive holes to the underground sewage systems were scattered throughout the area, indicating that the ground they were currently standing on probably was not all that stable enough to handle either of the two pushing it too greatly. While the fall of Junius Seven and the previous two wars had caused terrible amounts of destruction, there really was not any denying that there was hardly any sign of that destruction now, and from what Shinn could tell, it seemed like these ruins had been there for years now.

"What the hell happened here," Shinn asked in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper. "Did…did we get sent to the future or something?"

"If we did then I'm not liking it so far," Bulkhead told his friend. Before either of them could suggest any other theories, a number of loud explosions that were followed by a sudden uprising of smoke caught their attention, and both of the two friends knew that such a thing could only be a sign of a battle that was currently taking place. "Let's try and figure out this mystery later."

"Right. There's a chance that someone over there might need help," Shinn agreed, and the two were soon racing towards the source of the explosions in vehicle mode without another word. After a few hours of travel though, they were met with a sight that shocked them both.

There before them, was a massive, seemingly limitless army of mobile suits that looked a lot like the ZAKUs that Z.A.F.T. used as their main, mass-produce machines now-a-days, with the only exceptions being that they were a dark brown color, the absence of spikes or a shield on their shoulders, spiked knuckles, and the fact that its only weapon seemed to be a large, spiked club. The only thing that came as more shocking to the Gundam pilot and Autobot, was that in the center of the massive force of near-ZAKU-look-a-likes, was a group of five Gundams, all of various, unique designs. The first of these five Gundams was mostly colored white and blue, and had an appearance that almost made it look like some sort of French nobleman or knight, partly due to its head design and the cape-like shield on its left arm, and Shinn and Bulkhead were easily able to see that it was primarily fighting with a beam saber that looked similar to that of a rapier, while the Gundam that was closest to it was red, white, and blue with some hints of yellow, and possessed a large set of shoulder armor on both shoulders. The large-shoulder machine had been firing a large pair of revolvers into the massive army when the two first saw it, but eventually, it ended up holstering the guns and moved the armor on its shoulders over its hands, making it seem as though it were a Gundam-sized boxer.

Looking towards another end of where the five were currently fighting allowed Shinn and Bulkhead to lay eyes on a dark blue and white machine that was clearly meant to fight through the use of brute strength, given its large mass and size, and while it was slamming its fists into various opponents whenever they got close or just fired a pair of Vulcan guns that were in its helmet, it seemed to mainly fight through the use of a large ball-and-chain, flailing-type of weapon that made Shinn think of a wrecking ball. Fighting alongside the massive machine was a green and yellow machine that appeared to have a pair of dragon heads over its hands, while a long, gold-colored braid seemed extend out of the back of its red and gold helmet, and a number of white staffs on its back, similar to the one that it was currently using like a Bo-Staff. At one point, the green and yellow machine launched its fist forward and allowed the dragon-head armor of that fist to extend forward over the hand before unleashing a powerful blast of flames on the various opponents around it.

Finally, at the very center of the group of Gundams, was one that probably looked the most like some of the more recognized Gundams from history, such as the original Strike Gundam, the Impulse, or even the Freedom, as it was colored mostly blue and white with some hints of red and gold in its armor at some points, while its helmet had four, large points that were positioned in the usual point on the machine's helmet and a set of red and white wings adorned its back. Aside from a set of Vulcan guns that extended up from its shoulders, the only armaments this final Gundam seemed to possess were a pair of beam sabers, with one sword being shorter than the other when active, much like the weapons of choice for Ancient Japanese samurai, but even so, the machine still seemed to fight off any opponent it encountered with near-ease. Of course, the ease in which these five dealt with their opponents and the design of said Gundams was not really the most surprising thing to Shinn and Bulkhead, but instead, it was the way that the five machines were fighting.

The surprising thing about the way that the five mystery Gundams fought was the fact that they all fought with a fluidity and precision that was almost human-like. In fact, if Shinn and Bulkhead did not know any better, they would say that they were watching a group of human warriors fighting, for the things that these Gundams were doing was unlike anything either of them had ever seen anyone be able to do in a mobile suit before, let alone a Gundam. These machines were leaping through the air, snapping out hard punches and kicks, spinning their weapons in ways that they had only seen guys like Wheeljack or characters in old Earth movies do, and even performing multiple back flips across the ground. Sure the two had seen other mobile suit pilots perform some impressive maneuvers in mid-air, but this was completely different, as it was much faster and smooth than anything any of Shinn's fellow ace pilots had ever managed to pull off in a mobile suit before, even in the case of Athrun or Kira. There was just something about the way these five fought that made it seem like people fighting instead of machines.

Despite the circumstances as to how these Gundams were fighting, or the questions that were already running through the two's minds about these machines, one thing was clear to both Shinn and Bulkhead in regards to this group, and that was the fact that they were about to be overrun and needed some serious reinforcement. With that in mind, it was no wonder that Bulkhead and Shinn immediately charged in with guns blazing the minute that they had reached the edge of the battlefield and assumed bipedal mode once again. Soon enough, Bulkhead was blasting and bashing away at the various ZAKU-wannabes while Shinn was blasting, slashing, and beating down on anything that fell into the range of the Grand Destiny's various weapons, be they the arm blasters and swords, or one of its other armaments, and neither of them stopped until they had reached the center of the battlefield where the five mystery Gundams were fighting. Even after reaching the five, Shinn and Bulkhead kept tearing apart the enemy machines with everything they had, but they still noticed how the five machines seemed to pause for a minute at the pair's arrival, almost as if they were surprised by how they had just suddenly appeared, but the five seemed to immediately shake it off and resume their own offensive right alongside the two, and oddly enough, the five seemed to be openly discussing Shinn and Bulkhead's arrival as they fought. That in and of itself was not the odd thing, but rather, it was the fact that the five were doing so over what was clearly an open channel that could be heard by all.

"Are these guys seriously talking about us over open channels for the whole world to hear," Shinn asked Bulkhead in disbelief.

"Well if they were hoping we wouldn't notice, then they're in for a serious case of disappointment," Bulkhead replied as he smashed his wrecking ball fist into another ZAKU-wannabe. "Worry about it later though, and just keep wrecking these bunch of knockoffs like no tomorrow."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Shinn nodded in reply, and he immediately brought out the Grand Destiny's Anti-Ship swords for a double dose of slashing destruction. This continued on for a short time, but despite his focus on the battle, Shinn eventually found that he could not ignore the other five's conversations about him and Bulkhead any longer, and snapped, "Hey, you idiots do know we can both hear you clear as day, right?! Seriously, don't you know that you shouldn't be communicating over an open channel in the middle of a battlefield unless you want everyone that can hear to know what you're planning?!"

 _"Sorry about that, good sir,"_ a proper, French voice suddenly replied as the white Gundam with the rapier suddenly moved to slash an enemy machine that was about to get the drop on Shinn. _"I suppose my friends and I allowed our curiosity to get the better of us."_

 _"Well can ya blame us,"_ another voice asked as the boxing Gundam suddenly threw an extremely powerful punch in a way that made its fist almost seem like it was on fire when he did. The real shocker to Shinn was the fact that same punch had obliterated a small group of enemies in the same instant. _"I mean, it's not like we've ever seen you and your friend over there before, Mister Mystery-Fighter, so you can't blame us for wondering,"_ the voice from earlier finished as the boxing Gundam turned towards Shinn with a mock salute.

 _"Still, he does make a strong point,"_ a rather rough sounding voice told his friends as the massive Gundam raced across the battlefield as quickly as it could with its thrusters, given its size and likely heavy weight. _"We should try to focus on the battle before us instead of asking questions that can be answered later."_

 _"Agreed, so let's hurry and drive 'em back so that we can learn all about this guy,"_ a very young sounding voice with a distinct Chinese accent exclaimed excitedly, and if Shinn was right, then it was likely coming from the green and yellow machine as it somersaulted through the enemy's attacks before unleashing a burst of flames from its dragon heads once again. That same machine then seemed to glance behind them for an instant before waving to his comrades, Shinn, and Bulkhead as the pilot called out, _"Hey, we should probably get clear! Bro's about to use his move."_

While the other three gave an affirmative reply and immediately scattered from their current position, Shinn and Bulkhead just looked on in confusion for a minute before they decided to follow their lead, and after glimpsing the samurai-like Gundam, they had a feeling that they would be glad they had in a minute. After leaping into the air, the fifth Gundam that seemed to be leading the others suddenly opened its chest to reveal what appeared to be a cannon inside of it, while the wings on its back opened and began emitting a gold and red colored ring around the tips of the wings, and the armor on its right wrist suddenly extended forward while a set of claws extended up from the armor, and the hand itself seemed to glow with a fiery orange color. _"This hand of mine is burning red,"_ a new voice that Shinn and Bulkhead easily identified as being Japanese cried out. _"It's loud roar tells me to grasp victory! Erupting Burning Finger!"_

"Why is he shouting out his attack for the world to hear," Bulkhead questioned in disbelief over the fact.

"I have no idea," Shinn admitted in an exasperated tone, but the two's moods quickly changed to one of awe when the winged machine suddenly pulled the glowing hand back and then snapped it forward, unleashing what looked like a massive, blazing flamethrower attack, which tore through every enemy that was unfortunate enough to land in its path. Seeing how powerful this ability was reminded Shinn and Bulkhead of the Beam Cannons that Shinn and some of his friends had used along with their mobile suits in the past, but at the moment, they could not really think about it, because there was still work to do.

At least there had been work to do, because the minute that Shinn had started preparing to fire the Grand Destiny's Ragnarok Cannon, the enemy units suddenly began to turn around and leave the area, clearing out of the battlefield as fast as they could. "Wait, that's it," Bulkhead asked in equal disbelief to his human partner. "We show up and that guy lets that one attack loose and they all start running for the hills. Even the Vehicons are braver than that."

"Well to be fair, we did come in a bit late, so the fight was probably already reaching its high point by the time we got here," Shinn shrugged in good reasoning.

"I guess, but still, I was just getting warmed up," Bulkhead lightly whined in good humor.

 _"Well then, perhaps you'll allow one of us to grant you the fight that you desire,"_ the samurai-like Gundam pilot's voice suddenly said, prompting the two friends to turn to see that the Gundam in question had assumed a battle stance like it was getting ready to fight them. This came as a shock to the two, as they had more than likely just saved these guys' lives, and now their apparent leader was about to try and attack them like they were the enemy. At least, that's what it seemed like until the pilot said, _"I challenge you to a Gundam Fight. I honestly don't really care which one of you accepts my challenge so long as you both show me the same strength that you had just displayed a moment ago."_

"Wait, what? Why would we want to fight you," Shinn demanded. "We just saved you guys from getting overrun."

 _"Because at least one of you is most definitely a Gundam Fighter, and last I checked, the tournament is still going on, even if it is currently in the midst of the finals,"_ the man reasoned. _"So, will you accept my challenge."_

"No, why would I accept your challenge when I don't even have a clue as to what you're even talking about," Shinn snapped in exasperation. "Seriously, what tournament are you going on about that would require someone to pilot a Gundam in order to be in it?"

 _"You're joking right,"_ the young voice that came from the green and yellow Gundam asked in disbelief. _"He's talking about the Fourteenth Gundam Fight Tournament, of course, what do you think?"_

"Yeah, that's not ringing a bell or really clearing anything up at all," Bulkhead replied. "And how the scrap can there even be a Gundam Tournament of any kind when the number of Gundams isn't even big enough? Besides, I'm pretty sure that Cagalli, Lacus, Audrey, and Optimus would all be completely against something like that."

That statement caused the five mystery pilots to pause for a minute in surprise, until the boxing Gundam's pilot said, _"Wait, who're you talking about?"_

"Uh, who do you think? Cagalli Yula Athha Zala, Mineva Lao Zabi, and Lacus Clyne are three of the most influential leaders of the Sol Federation, at least in regards to Earth. Plus, Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots; that's something that you shouldn't even need to ask about," Shinn replied like such things were common knowledge.

 _"Autobots? Sol Federation,"_ the French voice queried in equal confusion to his comrades.

 _"Neither of you two are making any sense,"_ the rough voice of the large Gundam's pilot reasoned.

 _"Maybe they suffered a serious blow to their heads during the fight or something,"_ the boxing Gundam's pilot suggested.

At that point, the samurai-like Gundam stood down and said, _"Whether that is the case or not, we should still probably bring these two to the base that we've set up on the outskirts of the city, just to be on the safe side."_

 _"You sure about that, Bro? What if they're with Wong Yunfat,"_ the Chinese voice asked.

 _"If that were the case, then they likely wouldn't have risked their lives to save ours, Sai Saici,"_ the leader reasoned with his young-sounding friend.

 _"Neo Japan does make a good point. What do you think, George,"_ the boxing Gundam's pilot asked as it turned to the rapier-wielding Gundam.

 _"I'd say it may well be worth the risk, Chibodee,"_ the French pilot agreed.

 _"Then we shouldn't waste anymore time here,"_ the leader stated. He then turned his Gundam in the opposing direction that he had been facing before telling Shinn and Bulkhead, _"Follow us if you wish to talk. That is assuming you can keep up."_

"I wouldn't worry about that," Shinn reassured in a rather confident tone, and he and Bulkhead quickly showed their reason for being so confident by having Bulkhead transform into his SUV mode while the Grand Destiny leapt into the air and assumed its bomber plane mode, much to the other five's shock.

 _"Well, that's something you don't see every day,"_ the pilot that had been identified as Chibodee stated before replacing his shoulder armor in its previous position and grabbing what appeared to be a large surf board that the machine was carrying on its back. The red and blue machine then jumped onto the board and began surfing along the ground, revealing that the device was actually a massive, Gundam-sized hover board. The others then blasted up into the air and began to either fly or jump a great distance in the same direction as their leader, with Bulkhead and Shinn keeping a close distance to them with ease. All the while, each group was wondering just what was going on with the other and what they would end up discovering when they finally began to get their answers.

* * *

A few hours later saw Shinn and Bulkhead pulling into an old looking warehouse where various groups of people were gathered together around a few different machines, and standing right at the entrance was a young woman with short, brown hair, who wore a pink dress, a light blue jacket, gold colored earrings, and a pair of white boots. When their five hosts came to a stop at the entrance, a number of other people quickly rushed over to the machines while the pilots climbed out of the Gundams, allowing Shinn and Bulkhead to finally get a glimpse of the pilots themselves. The only common trait that the five shared was that their suits all appeared to be skin-tight and had small antennas on both shoulders, along the length of their spines, and on their wrists and ankles. Aside from that, the suits really only differed in terms of colors and design in some cases.

The man that had been identified as Chibodee wore a pilot suit that was mostly dark blue with a white stripe around his chest and a gold star on the left side, while the French man, George, wore a suit that had white arms and legs while the torso was red with a light blue line running diagonally across his front like a sash. Moving on to Sai Saici, who was definitely the youngest of the group if his height in comparison to the other four was anything to go by, had a suit that was mostly yellow with green shoulder pads, arm bands, and ankles, while a pair of small, black lines were situated in the center of his chest, while the pilot of the large Gundam, who was just as much of a giant as his machine was in comparison to the others wore a dark green suit that had a pair of brown straps crisscrossing over his front. Finally, the leader of the group was a man with black hair, a scar on his right cheek, and a red headband, while his suit was mostly black, save for the blue arm bands and ankle guards, and the red circle in the center of his chest.

The fact that these guys did not have helmets for their suits told Shinn that they were either very confident in their abilities and the durability of their cockpits, or that they were just nuts, because he had never known any sane pilot to ever go into battle without wearing a full suit, helmet included, unless there had not been time to properly suit up. He and Bulkhead watched for a minute as the man in black wrapped the woman who had greeted them in a passionate embrace for a few minutes, and then assumed bipedal mode before Shinn deactivated his machine's Phase Shift armor and climbed down, only removing his helmet when he was directly in front of the group. After a minute of silence, the mystery woman decided to break the ice and said, "I suppose we owe you and your friend thanks for helping Domon and the others back there, and sorry if any of them got a little excited after seeing you two fight. My name is Rain Mikamura, and I'm Domon's partner, girlfriend, and crew chief for the Gundam Fight Tournament. What's your name, and why hasn't your friend come out of his machine yet?"

That served as all the confirmation that Shinn needed to know that these guys had clearly never seen a Transformer of any kind before, and he figured it was already too late to try and act like Bulkhead was anything less than what he actually was, so he just took a deep breath and said, "Shinn. Shinn Asuka, ma'am. I'm the pilot of the ZGMF-CX42S Grand Destiny Gundam and a member of the Gundam Team, a specialized team created by the Sol Federation and the Autobots of Planet Cybertron, as well as the Z.A.F.T. Special Forces, FAITH unit. As for why my friend hasn't come out of his machine yet, it's because the big guy here isn't a mobile suit of any kind."

That drew both confused and surprised looks from the gathered group, but eventually, their attention was diverted to Bulkhead as the large Wrecker stepped forward as carefully as he could and said, "Uh…Hi. I'm Bulkhead of the Autobots. The Earth Division to be exact."

"Whoa so you're like an actual alien or something," Sai Saici asked in childish awe.

"Yeah, pretty much," Bulkhead nodded.

"Okay, that's actually pretty cool," Chibodee nodded before he turned to look at Shinn. "But still, you look like you're barely that much older than the squirt over here. You must be quite the fighter to have been able to be chosen as the representative for your nation in the tournament."

"Seriously, I already told you guys, I don't know anything about any tournaments, and I'm not representing any nations," Shinn sighed in weariness from having to repeat himself to these people.

"Well how else could you have gained access to a Gundam," George asked.

"Because I completed all the necessary training to become a mobile suit pilot at the Z.A.F.T. Military Academy and was chosen to be the pilot of the Impulse Gundam. That's pretty basic knowledge in terms of Cosmic Era history."

"Cosmic Era," the large man queried in confusion. "Don't you mean Future Century?"

"Uh no," Shinn shook his head. "I mean Cosmic Era, because last I checked the year is Cosmic Era 77." Rain was immediately running up to Shinn and checking him over the minute after he said that, much to the Z.A.F.T. ace's confusion and irritation. "Hey, cut it out! Seriously lady, what's your problem getting into someone's personal space like that out of nowhere!"

"Relax, I'm a doctor," Rain tried to reassure Shinn. "I'm just checking to see if you suffered a head injury at any point."

"Well then you're checking the wrong guy, because not only is my head fine, I'm the only one here with enough sense to have worn a helmet while he was out there fighting," Shinn snapped as he finally managed to shove Rain off of him.

"And yet you're talking crazy," Chibodee said. "I mean, if it weren't for your big friend there saying he was an alien, I'd have thought that you were already, but the fact that you don't know the right name of the timeline…"

"No…he does know the name of the timeline, just not your timeline," Bulkhead stated.

Everyone had to look at Bulkhead in confusion before Shinn finally said, "Okay I think you lost me along with everyone else, Bulk."

"There's was only one subject that really caught my attention and I managed to understand in my academy days growing up Shinn, and right now, it's the only explanation that actually makes sense enough to explain what's going on right now. Anyone here familiar with the multi-verse theory," Bulkhead asked.

"You mean the idea that there are other dimensions and such," Sai Saici asked. "That's pretty much the basic version that everyone understands, and that's because that's all it is: a theory."

"Well not anymore, because I think that's exactly what's going on here," Bulkhead reasoned. "Shinn and I were in a battle along with our fellow Autobots, Gundam pilots, and other allies when this huge energy vortex suddenly opened up and sucked us in along with some of our other friends, and given what we've now seen, I think it's a safe bet that it's transported us from our universe, and into another dimension, specifically yours."

George seemed to stare for a minute before turning to Shinn and saying, "I am not normally one to voice such disbelief in regards to another's beliefs, but I still must ask if you really agree with your friend's reasoning."

"After everything that he and I have been through in our lives up until now, I'd be more amazed that something that _didn't_ sound a little crazy seemed like the only explanation," Shinn shrugged in admittance. "Now before we go on with questioning one and others' sanity, can I please get some names to go with the faces of both these guys and their machines?"

If any of the five were offended by how Shinn had asked for their names, they did not really show it all that much, and they seemed to quickly jump on the chance to get their names out there, starting with the boxing Gundam's pilot. "Name's Chibodee Crocket, Gundam Fighter of Neo America, and my bad boy of a machine is the Gundam Maxter."

Following his comrade's lead, the Frenchman of the group was the next to step forward and presented himself with a polite bow of his head as he said, "It is a pleasure to meet you both, Mousier Asuka and Bulkhead. I am the head of the De Sand family, George de Sand, Gundam Fighter of Neo France. My machine is the elegant Gundam Rose."

Shinn could not help raising an eyebrow at hearing the name of George's machine, as it seemed a little girly in his opinion, but he simply shook it off while suppressing any laughter he had before it could surface as he turned to the youngest member of the group. "My name's Sai Saici, Gundam Fighter of Neo China," the young pilot informed the two with a bow that was typical of someone that was born in his country. "And my machine is the mighty Dragon Gundam."

The large man then stepped forward and simply nodded as he said, "I'm Argo Gulskii, former pirate turned Gundam Fighter of Neo Russia. I pilot the machine known as Bolt Gundam."

The fifth and final member of the group stepped forward and raised his right fist up so that the two could see the back of his hand clear as day when a strange looking tattoo suddenly seemed to appear on said hand. The image the tattoo displayed was that of a heart beneath a fancy letter "K" with a king's head and a pair of crossed swords in front of it, and while Shinn and Bulkhead were both wondering how it could be seen through the glove of the man's suit, they also found themselves wondering why it seemed to glow a little just before the headband wearing man stated, "My name is Domon Kasshu, Gundam Fighter of Neo Japan, champion of the Thirteenth Gundam Fight Tournament, and the leader of the Shuffle Alliance, better known as the King of Hearts. My Gundam is known as the Burning Gundam, and be forewarned, if you intend to face me at any point, the chances of your defeat will be quite high."

"What part of 'we don't want to fight you' did you not get," Bulkhead demanded, but any attempts at answering him were quickly cut off when Shinn asked a different question.

"What's this…Shuffle Alliance thing you mentioned, and what's with the tattoo on your hand," the Z.A.F.T. pilot inquired.

"It's not a tattoo, it's a Shuffle Crest," Sai Saici clarified as he and the other three raised their right hands to allow similar tattoos to appear in the same position as Domon's. "And we've all got one to show that we're part of the Shuffle Alliance as well, like Bro."

"Sai Saici holds the crest of the Ace of Clubs, Chibodee the Queen of Spades, George the Jack of Diamonds, and I hold that of the Black Joker," Argo explained.

"Okay, but that still doesn't answer my question as to what this Shuffle Alliance is," Shinn pointed out.

"The Shuffle Alliance is a special society of powerful warriors who's main task is to watch over the Earth and prevent it from facing destruction while enforcing the codes of warfare," Domon explained.

"Wait, you mean you guys just sit back and watch while people fight each other when you could do something to stop it," Shinn demanded, his anger quickly spiking again.

"It may seem that way to you, but the sad fact is human kind is a race of beings that just can't live without fighting, and much of our history revolves around conflict," Domon pointed out. "If we were to stop every single serious conflict, then we would only invite a new kind of chaos onto Earth, and that is why we only use our powers as the Shuffle Alliance to avert great catastrophe that would threaten the balance that warriors of battle all strive for."

"So basically, you just think that having people fighting all the time is a good thing," Shinn practically snarled. "How can you even think something like that considering what its caused, or have you even noticed the ruins that were just a few feet away from that last battle? Families get torn apart, kids are orphaned or end up disabled, homes are destroyed, and in some cases like that of my superiors, kids are also dragged into the fight against their will! How does any of that make fighting seem like a good thing?"

"Hey calm down, kid," Chibodee tried to reason. "That's just stuff that happens because of wars, but normally, we don't deal with that kind of thing anymore."

"Yeah, the ruins that Shinn mentioned a minute ago say otherwise," Bulkhead argued. "Besides, being a Wrecker, I know for a fact that constant fighting doesn't do much good for a lot of people, human or 'Bot."

"None of us will deny that the Gundam Fight Tournament is the cause for a lot of the most recent destruction on the planet, but it is a better alternative than letting the world be swept up in more world wars, and that was before the end of the last tournament," Argo revealed, getting looks of confusion from the two. "You see, during the last tournament, it was made clear to everyone that the Gundam Fights have the flaws that you mentioned, and that was why this year's tournament saw the addition of some new rules."

"Article Eight of the Gundam Fight Regulations: though Earth is the ring, a match must be held in a place that is well distanced from a populated area. Article Nine: Once a match has been completed, if necessary, a clean-up team must be called in to repair or restore any damage that the natural aspects of the area had sustained during the match. Article Ten: Failure to comply with the previous two articles will result in a severe penalty to both the fighter and his nation to be decided by the Gundam Fight International Committee," George recited. "These rules were put into place starting with this year's tournament, given how the late Master Asia had brought the flaws of the tournament to light during some of his various matches with Domon and his plot involving the machine known as the Dark Gundam."

"And that's supposed to make everything better," Shinn demanded. Admittedly, he was curious about what this Dark Gundam was as well as the exact identity of the master that George mentioned, especially after he noticed how Domon's expression became a little more somber at the mention of the man, but he was still a bit hung up on the fact that these people were okay with continuing to fight and destroy like it was no big deal. "There's nothing good that could come from fighting, and no matter how much you pretty things up, it doesn't change the fact that you are still fighting a war."

At that point, each of the Gundam fighters seemed like they were ready to slug Shinn, but they immediately backed off when they saw Domon approach the young pilot with a hard, yet neutral expression on his face. Once he was within arm's reach of Shinn, the two simply stared at each other for a few minutes, until Domon suddenly balled his fist and slammed a hard hit into Shinn's gut, winding the Z.A.F.T. ace for a minute. Thankfully, Shinn was able to regain himself and put some space between him and Domon, but he was quickly put on the defensive when Domon suddenly rushed him with attacks flying every second. "Hey what the hell are you doing," Shinn demanded as he tried to either dodge or block Domon's attacks, despite the fact that the latter option still ended up hurting quite a bit.

"Opening your eyes," Domon stated as he paused in his assault. "The Gundam Fight is more than just a solution to avoiding wars, it is a test of true warriors." A minute later, Domon was back on the attack while Shinn was doing everything he could to keep the man back, all the while, Domon continued talking like he was having a simple conversation. "It is true that many are disgusted with the fact that fighting is part of human nature, but even so, that doesn't change the fact that humanity fights in more ways that just that of combat. More importantly though, true warriors hold a code of honor that allows them to fight for others and often times demands that they clash with strong opponents and rivals to become stronger the more that they fight."

While Shinn was more focused on defending himself, he was taking in what Domon said, even if it did not make much sense to him. "So what? You saying that we should just forget trying to end fighting and let it create more fighting like it naturally does," Shinn demanded as he managed to jump away from a kick that Domon snapped out at him.

"Not at all," Domon stated. "I'm telling you that you cannot deny your warrior's spirit, because if you do, then you will never reach your full power and potential as a Gundam fighter."

"I am not a fighter, I'm a pilot," Shinn shouted as he finally found a chance to retaliate, but it ended up being in vain as Domon immediately caught Shinn's offending arm in a tight hold that Shinn somehow felt was more painful than his earlier attacks.

"It doesn't matter here, because like us, you command the powers of a Gundam," Domon stated as he held Shinn down. "True warriors can only understand each other once they have grappled with their fists and faced one another in battle, for the greatest masters are able to express their very soul through every strike that they make. Surely you sensed my feelings and soul through my own strikes just now." At that point, Domon finally released his hold on Shinn, letting the boy fall to floor as he panted and tried to get some feeling back into his arm. Domon then turned away and left Shinn with one last piece of advice. "You may not have to like what is in your nature, but if you deny it, you will never reach the full potential of the strength that you possess. I can sense that you hold a great power within both yourself and your machine, but your denial of these simple truths is holding you back. Look inside yourself Shinn Asuka, and I am sure that you will find that you have more in common with us than you seem to realize."

Shinn just stared at the Japanese fighter for a few minutes as Domon left with Rain throwing him an apologetic glance before she joined her boyfriend, and he did not turn away until Domon was out of sight. At that point, Shinn just looked down at the arm that Domon previously had a hold on, wondering if the things the Gundam Fighter of Neo Japan said about him was really true while the others just looked between both Shinn and Domon for a few seconds before they all went off to do their own things as well.

* * *

A few hours later saw Shinn and Bulkhead sitting just outside the entrance to the base that their hosts had set up, and during that whole time, Shinn had kept running Domon's words through his mind. Was he really just as much of a warrior as Domon seemed to think he was, because Shinn sure did not feel like much of one since he had gotten his ass handed to him so easily, and how could someone really say that there was not anything wrong with fighting or that there was a balance to it? Nothing about this place made any sense to Shinn, and he felt that was all the more reason why he and Bulkhead needed to hurry and find a way back home, but at the same time, he also wanted some answers about what Domon had said to him and in regards to why this world was the way it is now, because whatever those things from earlier were, it was clear that they were not part of the tournament that these guys were so fond of participating in.

Seeing that his partner and friend was so out of sorts was, naturally a great concern to Bulkhead, and the big guy had been quick to act on it by trying to cheer Shinn up any way that he could, but he was running out of ideas on how to do so pretty fast, especially since nothing he had tried so far had worked. "I mean seriously, it's like someone took all the incredible stuff you and your friends do with Gundams and mixed it together with that one cartoon that every human seems to enjoy so much. You know that _Dragon Ball Z_ show I think it was called," Bulkhead commented in his latest attempt to at least get Shinn to smile a little. He was not really making such things up, because that really had been the impression he had gotten since arriving in this world and talking with the five Gundam fighters and their allies, but even so, his words did not seem to have any effect on Shinn in the slightest. Finally, Bulkhead let out a sigh and asked, "Hey, you're not really still sore about what happened between you and Domon are you?"

"Ha, ha," Shinn finally replied with heavy sarcasm, knowing that Bulkhead had deliberately thrown in a small pun in reference to how his arm still hurt for a while after it was released from the hold Domon had put him in. After thinking for a minute though, Shinn figured that he would be better off trying to get a few answers from Bulkhead instead of Domon, mostly because he was sure that the next time he met the Gundam fighter, he would be more likely to try and deck the guy than he would be to try and talk with him. "Hey Bulkhead, do you think that Domon was right in what he said about how fighting is part of human nature and stuff?"

Bulkhead could tell that this was really bothering Shinn, so he immediately did his best to answer the young pilot's question. "Well I don't know about that, let alone when it comes to human nature, but I do know that he was right in saying that everyone is fighting for something in various ways. You had to fight against tough expectations by working hard at the Z.A.F.T. Academy, when I worked in construction, I had to fight back against some heavy lifting and various other hard tasks that require a lot of muscle or determination to complete, and Cagalli is often fighting a battle of beliefs and words whenever she's in a political meeting, whether it be as one of Orb's chief representatives or as a leader of the Sol Federation."

"But that's all completely different from all of this," Shinn reasoned. "I mean, how can they really condone a tournament like this when it's practically destroying the planet?"

"Well given what we've seen these guys are capable of, do you really think people would prefer it if they did still take part in conventional wars," Bulkhead inquired, and Shinn found that he could not really bring himself to answer that question, even if he knew full well that he already knew the answer, and Bulkhead knew this fact just as much as he did. "Shinn, you know why the Wrecker motto is what it is? It's because we do the stuff that no one else can do, not because they can't do it, but so that they don't have to do it. These Gundam fighters are practically doing the same thing here, fighting for their nation's right to lead the world so that the nations don't get into a full on war. Maybe some people can't live without fighting, but that just means that it's all the more reason why they have to do what they do, so that those people won't have to fight."

"Somehow, I don't think it's the same with these guys, Bulk," Shinn said sadly.

"Well maybe, but you still have to admit that they do a great job of living up to that code of honor that Domon mentioned, and they all seem more than happy to play by the rules that were laid out for this whole tournament," Bulkhead pointed out.

Shinn had to nod in admittance of that, and he then stood up and walked back into the base. Normally, this would be the point where he would go over to the Grand Destiny to do some of his own work on the suit to make sure it was ready in an effort to help him think, but he had already done that so much that he was starting to feel like it was getting ridiculous, and besides, the matter that was bugging him so much was not something he could figure out on his own, and right now, there were only four out of the five people that he felt that he could talk to about it the most easily. It did not take much time for Shinn to find one of those four people, as he quickly found Argo sitting off to the side on his own, just a short distance from Bolt Gundam, and he immediately gave a small cough to get the ex-pirate's attention once he had reached him.

"Is there something that you needed," Argo asked after he looked over to Shinn.

Shinn seemed to hesitate for a minute, but he eventually took a deep breath to calm himself and asked the question he wanted answered. "I was hoping you could tell me a few things about Domon."

"Why do you want to know? Suddenly thinking about accepting that challenge for a Gundam fight and looking to get some insight on his weaknesses," Chibodee asked as he suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere with the other two following shortly after him.

"No, it's not that," Shinn quickly reassured them. "I just want to know how he got to be who he is now, and why he seemed to deflate a little when you guys mentioned that Master Asia guy. And I was also hoping you could tell me about this Dark Gundam thing you all kept mentioning."

"Funny you should say that, because the Dark Gundam, Master Asia, and those guys we were all fighting when you and Bulkhead showed up actually all tie in to one another," Sai Saici revealed.

"Before he was selected as Neo Japan's Gundam fighter, and before he was the King of Hearts, Domon was a martial arts student under Master Asia, who was also Domon's predecessor as the King of Hearts," George stated. "He trained under the great martial artist, who had also been a previous Gundam Fight champion since he was just a boy, until one day, Master Asia deemed Domon worthy enough to inherit his Shuffle Crest, allowing him to become the new King of Hearts and finally return home to his family in the Neo Japan space colony."

"Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant return," Argo revealed, instantly causing Shinn to get a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. "When he did return home, he found out that his mother had been killed while his father was placed in a cryogenic stasis and his brother was now practically a wanted criminal, who had escaped with a machine that had been known as the Dark Gundam. In order to free his father and bring his brother to justice, Domon agreed to become the Gundam fighter for Neo Japan in the Thirteenth Gundam Fight Tournament, in which he met each of us and eventually became reunited with his master. Sadly, it turned out that Master Asia had allied himself with the Dark Gundam and planned to help it complete its objective for destroying all human life on Earth while making sure that no human ever set foot on the planet again."

"But why would he do that? I mean, if this guy was Domon's teacher and predecessor for the King of Hearts title, then why would he go and turn his back on the world he was trying to protect," Shinn asked.

"It all ties into what had happened after the guy won the tournament for his nation," Chibodee explained. "After he won, he saw the destruction he and his Gundam had caused and felt ashamed of himself for having played a part in causing so much destruction, right to the point where he became desperate to right his wrongs in any way that he could, no matter what the cost was. If that wasn't bad enough, things became even more complicated when Domon found out the truth behind the Dark Gundam."

"The truth," Shinn inquired.

"Yeah, it turns out that the thing was originally known as the Ultimate Gundam, and it was built by Bro's father and brother for the purpose of restoring the Earth, but some of the officials of Neo Japan's military just wanted to use it for their own selfish purposes, forcing his brother to take the machine and fly it to Earth where he thought it would be safe," Sai Saici informed Shinn. "Bro's mom only died because she was protecting his brother from getting shot, and that's what allowed him to get away with the thing."

"Sadly, something in the machine malfunctioned when it crashed on Earth, and caused it to be transformed into the Dark Gundam. Through all of that though, it still retained its original purpose of restoring the Earth, but it determined that the only way to do so was to destroy humankind," Argo continued. "It took a bold sacrifice on the part of Domon's brother in order for him to destroy it for good, and ultimately, it led to Domon's final confrontation with his former master, in which Domon reminded his teacher that such a plan was flawed since humanity is part of Earth as well."

"The four of us are proud to say that we were able to witness every moment of that final battle, for it was a moment that we had been waiting for the entire year of that tournament to see, but sadly, it was not all pleasant, for even though Domon had won, it was Master Asia's final battle, and he died just shortly after the two had finally made peace with each other," George finished.

Shinn could hardly believe everything he had just heard. The idea that the same guy who had just been delivering a severe beating to him while trying to teach him something had gone through so much was both amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. Domon had lost so much, and yet he still continued to follow the same beliefs he had always held to this day, no doubt in an effort to honor the memory of those he had lost. A part of Shinn could not help but wonder if he would have been able to do the same if he had been in Domon's position, while another part was a little too scared to think about it, but through all of that, Shinn did know one thing for certain: he now held a new level of respect for the man known to his world as the King of Hearts, and that is why he immediately went off to find Domon as soon as he had thanked the four for telling him all of this new information.

* * *

After the way he had come down on Shinn, Domon could not help but wonder if he had been a little hard on the kid while also thinking that the guy would be doing his hardest to avoid him no matter what, so he was naturally surprised when Shinn silently walked up to him with a determined expression on his face that hid a small hint of nervousness behind it. After silently staring at each for a minute or so, Domon finally had to ask, "Is there something that you need?"

Shinn did not reply for a minute, as he was nervous about what he was going to say, but ultimately, he figured he would be better off just coming out and saying it, so he took a deep breath and faced the King of Hearts with as much courage as he could muster when he finally spoke. "I want you to train me."

"Come again," Domon asked.

"I mean, I thought about what you said, and maybe you were right about a lot of things, but I don't really know for sure," Shinn admitted. "I know you said that there's some kind of inner potential inside of me and that it would be up to me to bring it out, but I don't even have a damn clue on how to do that. More than that, when I'm out there in my machine, I'm not piloting it like you and your friends do, and maybe if I were in a fire-fight, I'd be able to hold my own, but when I was trying to keep ahead of you earlier, I was clearly outclassed in every way you could think of. Sure, I might not ever meet someone back home like you and those other guys, but it's still plain as day that my close-combat abilities outside of a mobile suit leave a lot to be desired. So if you wouldn't mind teaching me a few things and helping me figure out a way to reach that potential you were talking about, I'd be willing to learn."

Domon just quietly stared at Shinn for a minute, almost as if he were analyzing every aspect of Shinn's words and the pilot himself in an attempt to try and decide whether or not he believed Shinn. With how intense the fighter's gaze was, Shinn could not help but feel a bit uncomfortable, but he still did his best to not show it and stood tall throughout it all. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Domon finally gave Shinn a small smile and said, "If you intend to learn under me, then you will have to be ready to endure the harsh regimen of the School of the Undefeated of the East, but I can see that you truly do possess a warrior's spirit that compels you to become stronger, whether it be for yourself or for the sake of others." Domon then paused for a moment to let the sink in, clearly wondering how Shinn would react to hearing all of this, and when the Z.A.F.T. pilot did not react in the slightest, Domon's smile actually grew a little more before he finally revealed his decision. "I will teach you how to become a stronger and true warrior."

Shinn's neutral expression finally broke as his face split into a massive grin, and when Domon gestured for him to follow after him, the Gundam pilot did so with a slight spring in his step that made it almost seem like he was running. He may not have known what to expect from learning under this man, but Shinn Asuka was never one to back down from anything in his life, so he did not plan to start now.

* * *

It was a little hard to say how much time had passed since Shinn had asked Domon to train him, but Bulkhead was sure that it was more than just a few days yet still likely less than a month, and as he watched Shinn and Domon sparring along with the other four members of the Shuffle Alliance and Rain, he could not help but admire Shinn's progress in such a short time. Sure the Z.A.F.T. ace was still not quite on the same level of fighting skill as Domon and his friends, but the fact that Shinn had gotten so much faster and gained so much strength in his strikes at all was impressive in and of itself. If Shinn had a few more years, he probably would become almost as good as anyone of these people in no time, but Bulkhead knew that they did not have the luxury of staying here forever, assuming that it was possible to get back home.

The large Wrecker had been working with Rain, some of the members of the other Gundam fighters' crews, and even Domon's father in an attempt to find some way for he and his partner to return home or at least send a signal to their friends to let them know what had happened to them, but so far, all of their efforts had produced no good results. Still, Bulkhead was sure that Bumblebee, Yzak, and the others were doing everything they could to keep things in order while searching for an answer on how to bring the two and their other scattered friends back from their end, so Bulkhead was not willing to give up just yet. That did not mean that he did not feel himself getting a little worried about whether or not they would get home again from time to time, but thankfully, watching Shinn working so hard under Domon's teachings proved to be something of a useful distraction from those worries. Then again, there was also another matter that had been distracting him for a while, and considering who he was currently in the company of, he figured now was as good a time as any to finally get some answers on the matter.

"You know, none of you ever told us who those guys we helped you fight off when we first got here were," Bulkhead said to the Shuffle Alliance and Rain after spending a long time watching their friends train in silence.

"Well to be honest, it's kind of crazy that those guys are even around now, especially given the story behind them," Chibodee said. "The truth is, those mobile suits were actually drones of the Dark Army, the personal forces of the Dark Gundam."

"But if those things work for the Dark Gundam, and that thing is scrap, then how are they still around," Bulkhead inquired, having heard the same story Shinn had heard in the time that they had been there.

"It's a bit complicated," Rain stated as she suppressed a small shiver that Bulkhead almost missed. "Basically, the Dark Gundam was not completely destroyed and some of the more specialized suits and Gundams that it had created were left here on Earth, though it wasn't really by choice."

"Yeah, a lot of it was because we all thought each of those things were trashed," Sai Saici revealed.

"As it turned out, one of those machines was still left in just good enough of a condition for someone to salvage some of the Dark Gundam's tech for himself," Argo revealed. "That man was actually dethroned from his position as leader of the world after Domon's victory in the last tournament: the former Prime Minister of Neo Hong Kong, Wong Yunfat."

"We all thought he had bit the dust when Domon knocked him out the sky, thwarting the ex-minister's attempt to keep Domon from getting into space for one last showdown against the Dark Gundam, but he somehow survived through the use of these things called DG cells and started rebuilding as much of the Dark Gundam's self-created tech for his own purposes," Chibodee revealed.

"Now he wishes to exact his revenge on all who he feels had wronged him while taking control of both Earth and the colonies for himself by any means necessary, no matter disgraceful those means may be," George finished.

Bulkhead was astounded by such revelations, to say the least. He heard of a number of different people who were willing to go to any lengths for their own selfish desires, the biggest examples of this being the Decepticons, the Eradicons, and LOGOS, but from the things he had heard about the Dark Gundam, it was almost as though this Wong Yunfat person had practically sold his soul to the devil just to get what he wanted, and was still doing so today. Admittedly, he did acknowledge that it was not all that much different from what Galvatron and Le Creuset were now doing with Unicron, but even they would not be that desperate or insane…at least, Bulkhead hoped that was not the case. Though this was a shocking surprise, what Bulkhead saw when he turned his attention back to Domon and Shinn's spar came as even more of a shock.

At some point during their fight, Domon and Shinn had started to really up the ante on things, until eventually, Shinn found himself pushed into a corner, at which point he snapped and subconsciously unleashed the power of his SEED Burst, something Bulkhead not known anyone to be able to do outside of a mobile suit aside from Lacus, and now Shinn was fighting back with a new ferocity. The only problem was that Shinn's new boost in strength did not seem to do all that much against Domon, as the King of Hearts was easily dodging or deflecting Shinn's blows with ease, almost as though he was able to see them coming, but upon closer inspection, Bulkhead saw that it was more to something else. Domon was not predicting where Shinn would strike because Shinn was letting a great deal of his frustration and rage guide his actions, and the martial artist was using that rage-induced frenzy to his advantage.

"You fool," Domon snapped as he spun aside from another of Shinn's blows, letting the boy practically topple down into the ground behind him as he did. "You cannot let your rage be the trigger for unleashing your power, or it will blind you to everything around you, turning you into nothing more than an animal acting on instinct while forcing you to let your guard down and give your enemy several opportunities to attack."

Shinn did not say anything in reply, but instead was forced to just pant in slight exhaustion as he came out of SEED Burst Mode after he fell to the ground. What Domon said did make sense, but the problem was, Shinn did not really know of any other way to trigger the ability, as it always seemed to activate whenever he was extremely determined or angered. Sure Kira and Athrun had tried to explain how to utilize the ability at will, but Shinn could not really understand it at all. Now though, he was beginning to understand some of it, as Domon's training was helping him learn a bit more about that sort of thing, but not quite what he needed to learn. Seeing Shinn's confusion on the matter, Domon took pity on the poor boy and informed him of something he, himself had learned a few years ago in regards to a similar power that he possessed.

"In order to truly unleash a warrior's full potential, he must learn to attain a serene state of mind, even in the most perilous of battles," Domon explained. "As someone once told me, your soul must be unobstructed like a mirror and tranquil like water after a storm. A serene state of mind is a clear heart without any guilty feelings or a guilty conscious, and it gives one the ability to surpass their own skills."

"And is that how I could activate the SEED Burst," Shinn inquired, hoping that he was understanding correctly.

"I could not really say in regards to whatever you speak of, but such a thing is what allows me and my allies to awaken a special power that we each hold within," Domon revealed. He then glanced around the area for a minute until his eyes fell upon a large pile of nearby debris, and he immediately began to walk towards the pile while grabbing a sword that Shinn had noticed that Domon always carried when he was not in his fight suit. "Watch and observe," Domon told Shinn as he held the blade in a position ready to strike.

An instant later, Shinn saw the blade gain a faint glow just before Domon charged and slashed at the debris pile with a single stroke. He then stood at ease and swung the sword down so that he was holding it at his side, just an instant before the debris pile suddenly fell apart from being cut clean in two, reminding Shinn and Bulkhead of a similar move that they had seen in a few different samurai and martial arts movies. After letting his student gaze in awe for a minute, Domon walked back over to Shinn with a slight smile on his face before holding out the blade for Shinn to examine as he said, "Take a close look at my blade, and tell me about what it seems to be to you."

Shinn did as Domon asked, and he could not help but gasp a little in shock when he said, "Geez, this thing looks like it's almost completely rusted. How'd you cut through all that with such a dull blade."

"As I said, with a serene state of mind, one can accomplish many things that they could not normally do," Domon repeated. "By training with that sword, I learned to master my own serene state of mind, and perhaps, you may be able to do the same."

Shinn was about to ask if Domon would really be okay with him training with this sword, when a sudden explosion knocked everyone out of the small trance they had fallen into watching Domon train the Coordinator. Looking towards the source, everyone quickly spotted a vast amount of Dark Army mobile suits heading towards them, and the five Shuffle Alliance members were all immediately scowling in the direction of the mechanized monsters as a result. "These guys really know how to pick the worst times to show up," Chibodee groaned.

"Indeed they do," George quickly agreed while Argo and Sai Saici just gave a pair of nods in similar agreement.

"Doesn't matter," Bulkhead stated as he sat up from where he had been sitting and armed his wrecking ball fists. "If these guys want to fight, then they'd better be ready to get wrecked."

"Wait Bulkhead, we can't just go charging into that now," Rain protested. "None of our backup has arrived yet."

"Well those guys obviously aren't going to wait for that backup to arrive, so we don't have much of a choice," Shinn said as he stood up and handed Domon's sword back to him. He then had to smirk a little as he grabbed his helmet from the nearby bench he had set it down on for the duration of his spar with Domon and said, "Besides, haven't you heard? Wreckers don't call for backup."

Bulkhead could not help but exchange Shinn's smirk with him as he finished the motto with his partner with pride. "THEY CALL FOR CLEANUP!"

An instant later, Bulkhead and the Grand Destiny were charging into battle, with the Shuffle Alliance unable to help but smirk at the two as they charged. Not wanting to let the two visitors from another dimension show them up, Domon immediately nodded to his Shuffle Partners and led the way to their own Gundams as he snapped his fingers and cried out, "Well then, here we go! RISE GUNDAM!"

* * *

Bulkhead and Shinn had wasted absolutely no time tearing into the Dark Army after they were well within range of the evil mobile suits, but Bulkhead was a bit more conservative of his actions in the battle, not because he wanted to be, but because he had no choice at the moment. The two knew full well that since this Earth had never encountered the Transformers or even Cybertron, then there was not likely to be any source of energon for Bulkhead around, so the large Wrecker had to use his blasters as sparingly as possible if he wanted to avoid running dry. That did not mean that the two had another disadvantage in addition to the fact that their enemy had overwhelming numbers to throw against them, but it did make it a little harder for them to fight at their best. Thankfully, they did not have to fight the Dark Army alone, as the Shuffle Alliance was joining them in battle mere minutes after they had reached the battlefield.

Of course, Shinn's attention was actually a bit scattered, as he had surprised himself when he eventually realized that he was applying a lot of what Domon had taught him in how he fought in the Grand Destiny. Between how the machine would slam powerful punches or kicks into various opponents before slicing them apart with either the Ascalon Sword or one of the Anti-Ship Swords, it was very clear that Shinn was applying a number of the fighting skills he had learned to his fighting style. In fact, if one did not know better, they would say that it almost seemed like Shinn was using the same control system that the Gundam fighters used. Of course, Shinn's moment of awe at his sudden improvement in mobile suit combat caused him to just miss a pair of Dark Army drones that were about to take him by surprise, but thankfully, a quick slash from Burning Gundam's beam saber saved Shinn before the drones could even touch the Grand Destiny.

"You're letting your focus slip, Shinn," Domon lightly scolded. "Remember, in battle, you must always focus all of your senses on the enemy before you."

"Right Master Domon," Shinn replied with a light tease in his voice. Domon had insisted that Shinn not refer to him as such when they started training together, but the young pilot could not help but call him that every now and again just to tease him a little.

Domon had to sigh in exasperation when he heard Shinn's statement before he simply shrugged, a motion that Burning Gundam instantly copied, and said, "Well I guess I would've ended up being called that by someone sooner or later, so I might as well start trying to get used to hearing it."

"Hey come on, Neo Japan," Chibodee remarked as he fired Gundam Maxter's guns at various different enemies. "You start talking like that and people will begin to think you're getting old."

"You'll all be relics so enough," a new voice snapped, and the group of seven soon found themselves turning to see Gundam that looked like a large, split sphere with three legs soaring down from above, which Domon immediately recognized as the machine that Yunfat used against him years ago, and the martial artist knew that could only mean one person was piloting it. "You all stripped me of my title as ruler of the world, and now, I'll take it back by any means necessary! And once I've done that, all will bow before me, Wong Yunfat, as the true ruler of the world for all eternity!"

"Sheesh, can this bastard sound anymore like a cliché comic book villain," Shinn asked in disbelief.

"No kidding," Bulkhead agreed. "Even Starscream gives a better villain speech than that, and that's saying something."

"Either way, now that he's shown himself, we've just got to take him out," Sai Saici stated in confidence as he drew one of Dragon Gundam's beam flags for battle.

Yunfat just laughed when he heard the young fighter's remark and retorted, "Do you really think it will be that easy, especially when I have this fully in my control?"

A minute later, the ground shook beneath the group's feet, and the Shuffle Alliance's eyes all widened when they saw a massive Gundam with a red and blue torso and a large head for feet suddenly burst up from beneath the ground with a bestial roar, followed by a number of what looked like large snakes with Gundam-like heads that responded with roars of their own. "It can't be," Argo gasped.

"Bro destroyed that thing," Sai Saici added in slight fear.

"We all saw it bite the dust," Chibodee insisted.

"So how is it here," George demanded.

"What have you done, Yunfat," Domon snarled at the former ruler.

"I think that is quite obvious, Domon Kasshu," Yunfat replied in the full arrogance of one who believes that they will soon have the world as their plaything. "I managed to find a way to circumvent the problem of requiring a core life unit, and now, the Dark Gundam lives again to do my biding!"

"That's the Dark Gundam," Shinn gasped in shock.

"Wow, you guys weren't kidding. That thing is one ugly machine," Bulkhead noted to the Gundam fighters.

"And soon enough, it will be dust again, because we'll destroy it once and for all, this time for absolute certain," Domon declared, and he immediately charged forward with his friends, Shinn, and Bulkhead right behind him. Sadly, their charge was quickly cut off by both the Gundam Heads and the Dark Army, and the seven were soon doing all they could in a fight to just survive the overwhelming odds. Even with Chibodee, George, and Argo using their most powerful techniques, it made no difference how many Dark Army forces they defeated, because there always seemed to be another squad to take the place of the one that they had beaten back, and the only thing making their situation more irritating was the fact that Wong was laughing at them, mockingly, the entire time. At least he was until a new voice suddenly rang out.

"Noble Hula Hoop," the voice of a woman shouted, and in an instant, multiple Dark Army forces were destroyed by a large Beam Hoop before it returned to the hand of a blue, red, and white Gundam with a long, yellow extension coming out of the back of its head to give it the appearance of having long, blonde hair, furthering emphasizing the very feminine appearance it possessed, much to Shinn and Bulkhead's surprise. "Hope we're not too late for the party, Domon."

"Not at all, Allenby," Domon smiled in reply as the feminine Gundam landed alongside the group.

"Hey, who're the two new guys," Allenby asked, indicating Bulkhead and Shinn as she did.

"This is Shinn Asuka, pilot of the Grand Destiny Gundam, and Bulkhead, an alien from another planet, if you can believe it," Chibodee replied like it was no big deal.

"You're kidding!"

"Nope," Shinn denied. "Look, we'll tell you all about our life stories later, but right now, let's focus on taking this guy down."

"Sure thing," Allenby smirked in reply. "Don't worry, Noble Gundam and I have got your back, and so do all the rest of us."

"Us," Shinn and Bulkhead both inquired, only to find themselves gapping in awe when an entire army of Gundam suddenly rained down on the battlefield to tear into the enemies.

"Whoa…that's a lot of Gundams," was the only thing that Bulkhead could think of to say, while Shinn just nodded, dumbly, and one could not blame either of the two for their awe. Everywhere they turned, the two saw Gundams of all shapes, sizes, and design fighting back against the Dark Gundam's forces, and up until this point, the two had never thought they would ever see so many Gundams in one place at once. Seeing all of them here and now truly showed the two just how vastly different this universe was from their own, but in all honesty, that did not bother Shinn at all for some reason.

"Are you alright, Shinn Asuka," Argo asked when he realized that the Grand Destiny had not moved from where it was for some time and upon using Bolt Gundam's communications systems to see Shinn in his cockpit, he was a bit concerned at the sight of the Coordinator trembling so much.

"Yeah I'm fine," Shinn admitted quietly after another few seconds.

"You sure about that? You're trembling quite a bit," George remarked.

"Yeah…I'm trembling because I'm excited," Shinn finally exclaimed. "I mean, back home there's only ever, like a handful of Gundams at one time, at best, but this is…wow! Seeing so many Gundams gathered together like this is incredible!"

Bulkhead and the Shuffle Crest bearers could not help but smile a bit at Shinn's excitement, as it was not that much different from the awe that they had each felt the first time seeing such a sight as well. Although for Bulkhead, this was his first time seeing such a thing like Shinn, but for the other five, this was actually not that much different from when the World Gundam Federation was first born during the final battle against the Dark Gundam. They were all quickly brought back to the situation at hand when some of the Dark Army suddenly charged them, but their brief pause did nothing to slow them down at all.

Instead, it actually invigorated them to fight all the harder. Sai Saici and Argo were blazing through various drones, while Chibodee and George unleashed hell on a number of airborne opponents that were raining down from above, and during all of that, Bulkhead and Shinn were slashing, bashing, and blasting their way towards the devil machine that was controlling all the various, enemy forces alongside of Domon. When replicas of the Dark Gundam's generals, Grand Gundam and Soaring Raven Gundam, suddenly appeared before them, Domon's Shuffle Partners did not hesitate for a second to engage them, each saying that they intended to take the two down without being defeated as well like they had been before, and that was when it all made sense to Shinn. These people were not just fighting for the sake of fighting, but because they were warriors with great pride and honor that would not allow them stand idly by when someone either threatened their way of life, their dreams, or even that honor and pride, and in a way, they were fighting the same kind of battle that he and his friends had been fighting for so many years now.

There was no time for Shinn to pat himself on the back for reaching this understanding, because at that point, Wong Yunfat suddenly swooped down to intercept the three with everything he had. Shinn was about to ready the Grand Destiny's Ragnarok Cannon when Burning Gundam suddenly blasted in front of him and took a stance while its wings opened. "Watch closely Shinn, and observe the last technique that my master taught me before passing," Domon told his student before he cried out the name of said attack. "The School of the Undefeated of the East's Ultimate Secret Technique! Sekiha Tenkyoken!"

An instant later, a massive sphere formed between Burning Gundam's hands before rocketing forward and obliterating everything that fell into its path. Shinn thought for sure that had dealt with the irritating, former world leader, especially given that a number of Gundam Heads and Dark Army troops had been completely demolished as a result, but somehow, Yunfat had managed to evade Domon's technique at the last second and was now charging towards the three in an attempt to take them down. At least that was the case until Noble Gundam and another, unknown Gundam suddenly came out of nowhere and tackled Yunfat's machine aside.

Looking over the new arrival, Shinn could see a few similarities between it and Domon's machine, aside from the fact that it had a bit more blue and white in it than Burning Gundam did, and it carried what looked like a large, naginta on its back instead of possessing wings like Burning Gundam did. In addition to this, Shinn could also see what looked to be a Gundam-sized, compact bow mounted on its left arm, and considering how Gundam Maxter's shoulder armor could be converted into massive, boxing gloves, Shinn had to consider the possibility that this new Gundam's large shoulder armor likely served a similar function. "Domon, we'll take care of Yunfat, you guys go on and take out the Dark Gundam," Allenby shouted, snapping Shinn out of his quick analysis of the new arrival, but Domon was not ready to continue on their way to the Dark Gundam just yet.

"Rain, what're you doing in the Rising Gundam again," Domon demanded. "You know this is dangerous!"

"I don't care," Rain retorted, confirming that the King of Hearts' girlfriend was indeed piloting the machine, much to Shinn and Bulkhead's slight surprise, as they had not expected Rain to be able to pilot a Gundam at all. "I've told you before Domon that I'm not going to just sit back and watch when I know that there's a way that I can help. Now do what Allenby said and leave this to us. We've actually got a small score to settle with that particular Gundam."

Domon seemed like he wanted to argue further, but in the end, he knew that it would have been pointless, since there were often times that Rain was as stubborn as he is, so he nodded to the two girls and charged forward with Shinn and Bulkhead hot on his tail. The three did not stop going until they were practically face-to-face with the Dark Gundam, and the machine was instantly on the offensive when it saw that they were in front of it. The three were quickly scattering when the Dark Gundam extended its shoulders up and unleashed a powerful storm of beam blasts down on them like a brutal hail storm, and while Shinn and Domon had managed to avoid most of the blasts, Bulkhead found himself drawing the short end of the stick when a number of them successfully hit him. He was not surprised by this, given that his large size naturally made him slower than Shinn and Domon, but Bulkhead would not deny that getting hit so hard by so many different attacks had actually hurt quite a bit more than he would normally be willing to admit.

Before Shinn could move to help his friend, Bulkhead shouted, "Don't worry about me, Shinn! You just focus on helping Domon take that thing down!"

"No way! You're my friend, Bulkhead! I won't let you go down like this," Shinn protested.

"Hey, do you really think I'm going down that easily," Bulkhead asked in a tone of mock offense. He then became serious again and said, "Relax Shinn, after all, we're both warriors as well, right?"

Shinn stared at Bulkhead for a minute, not entirely sure what to say, and that was what prompted Domon to approach him. "What is your answer, Shinn," Domon asked, drawing the Coordinator's attention. "Your friend seems to already know what you've been denying for a while now, and he knows it about himself and you. If you truly wish to win, then you can no longer deny who you are. You and I share a bond, not just as Gundam pilots, but as warriors who have grappled with many powerful opponents with all of our hearts and souls, so I'll ask again: who and what are you?"

Shinn was silent for a minute, but deep down, he knew what his answer was, and that was the answer he eventually gave. "I am Shinn Asuka, pilot of Grand Destiny, member of the Gundam Team from the Cosmic Era universe, and I…I am…A WARRIOR SAME AS YOU GUYS!"

At that point, Shinn finally tapped into the power inside of him, and awakened the SEED Burst in the way that only Athrun and Kira had ever managed to for the first time in his life, but it did not stop there, because in an instant, almost as though it had sensed the change in its pilot, the Grand Destiny lit up with a new surge of energy that was far stronger than anything Shinn had ever utilized before in either his current machine or his previous one. This was further emphasized when the wings of Grand Destiny opened and erupted with the energy that was similar to the Wings of Light that the Destiny possessed, only they seemed to radiate with a gold and silver energy that brought a calming feeling over the battlefield around everyone. Seeing this transformation in Shinn brought a broad smirk of pride to Domon's face, and when he turned to face the Dark Gundam again, he knew that he would be doing so with a powerful assist from his student.

"Then come, Shinn Asuka, and let us show the world the power of your warrior's soul," Domon shouted, and instant later, Burning Gundam was also transforming into its Hyper Mode, with Domon shouting his famous chant the entire time along with Shinn. "This hand of mine is burning red," Domon began as his Shuffle Crest lit up like a Christmas tree.

"It's loud roar tells me to grasp victory," Shinn finished with a powerful surge of confidence, and the two immediately charged forward, with Domon's most powerful technique ready, along with the Grand Destiny's Ascalon Sword glowing with an energy that it had never had before, while its free hand began to glow with power as well.

"Sekiha Tenkyoken Burning Finger," Domon cried out as he combined the two techniques into one, unleashing them both on the Dark Gundam. The resulting explosion from the attack hit caused the monstrous machine to roar in pain, but it did not quite finish the job. Thankfully, Shinn was already on the move, and more than able to do as such.

"Grand Destiny Blazing Sword," Shinn cried out as he over-clocked the power of the Ascalon Sword to levels it had never been predicted to reach before, causing the beam blade to reach incredible length, easily while it seemed to ignite with a raging inferno. When the Grand Destiny brought the sword down, it easily cut through the Dark Gundam like a knife through butter, practically severing the machine in half. Shinn was not done yet, as he quickly spun his Gundam around and raised its right hand forward, allowing everyone to see that the Palma Beam Cannons in the hand was lit up with a powerful charge of energy that none of them had seen the likes of before. "Now taste this," Shinn cried out. "Grand Destiny Breaker!"

A moment later, the energy in the Palma Cannon erupted forth, consuming every last inch of the Dark Gundam in a blaze of energon infused beam energy, and Domon could not help but stare in smiling awe at how incredible the attack was, because it far exceeded anything he had ever been able to unleash with or without Burning Gundam's power. When the blast finally settled and the smoke cleared, everyone other than Wong Yunfat was immediately cheering in victory when they saw that there was nothing left of the dreaded Dark Gundam, while Domon simply walked over and had the Burning Gundam place a hand on the Grand Destiny's shoulder, just as Shinn allowed the machine to collapse into a sitting position.

"That was well done, Shinn," Domon complimented. "And I'm glad to see that you've learned what it truly means to be a great warrior."

"Thanks Domon," Shinn nodded. "I guess I just needed a serious wake-up call to finally realize that there's no such thing as a battle without meaning to someone who fights with all their heart and soul, and that you guys are a lot more like my friends and I than I gave you credit for. Sorry about giving you a hard time when we first met."

"Don't worry about it. I probably would've done the same thing in your position. After all, we're both completely nuts," Domon laughed in reassurance, and Shinn soon found himself right behind the martial artist in his laughter mere seconds later before they finally moved to make sure that Bulkhead was alright.

* * *

After the battle against the Dark Gundam had finally ended and everyone had checked over any damage or injuries that they had suffered, the Shuffle Alliance were more than happy to see Wong Yunfat escorted away in handcuffs by the authorities of the World Gundam Federation and the Gundam Fight Tournament officials, making it quite clear that the man would never trouble anyone ever again, while giving them all even more relief over the fact that the nightmare of the Dark Gundam would never again be revived by anyone. No matter how relieved they felt though, it did little to hide the fact that none of them had seen Shinn and Bulkhead since the two had gotten the Grand Destiny and the large Autobot fixed up, and that was reason enough for Domon to go and look for both the Wrecker and his impromptu student.

Eventually, he found the young Coordinator and the seasoned Autobot sitting off on their own by the docks as they watched the sunrise, and even from a distance, Domon could tell that something was bothering them both. "What's wrong you two," Domon asked when he finally reached them. "You should be celebrating our victory with the rest of us."

"Yeah, we know," Shinn nodded. "It's just…we've really got to find a way to get back home, and fast. It's not just because of what's going on over there, but it's also for Bulkhead's sake as well."

"He's right," Bulkhead confirmed. "I won't be able to survive in your universe since there's no energon supply in existence here. Sure we could jury rig some kind of temporary replacement, but without any of the real thing, I'll probably end up joining the Well of AllSparks before we get a chance to get home."

Domon could see that this was really bothering the two, and he certainly understood their urgency for needing to get home, so he simply smiled and said, "I'm sure that you'll find a way, and if your friends who are still back at your homes are anything like the two of you, then I know that they'll fight any opponent that crosses them in order to bring you home before that happens."

"You really think so? I mean, you've never even met our friends," Shinn remarked.

"Have you learned nothing, you fool," Domon asked his student. "I never needed to meet them, for everything you know about them, I learned when we had exchanged blows and grappled with our fists, for your fists are the way to express your soul as a warrior. That is how I know that your friends won't give up on you, because you believe that with every fiber of your being."

After letting that sink in after a minute, Shinn's sour look immediately morphed into a broad smile along with Bulkhead's, and the Coordinator of the two immediately said, "Thanks…Master Domon. I guess we needed to hear that from someone other than each other."

"Any time," Domon nodded as he stood up and threw Shinn a small smirk. "Now then…answer me, Shinn!"

The minute he heard those words, Shinn's smile became replaced by a look of horror as he muttered, "Oh no." He then looked to Domon and practically whined, "Do we have to do that right now?"

"Yes. It is a sign of respect between master and student that was passed down to me from my master," Domon insisted, much to Shinn's dread. "Now then, answer me Shinn! The School of the Undefeated of the East!"

Seeing he had no choice, Shinn jumped up and struck a quick battle pose as he cried out, "The Winds of the King!"

Immediately after, the two were exchanging a fast flurry of blows while Domon continued, "Zenshin!"

"Keiretsu," Shinn cried out in response.

"Tenpa kyoran," the two then shouted together before they finally collided their fists together in a fist bump while holding a pose and finishing the cry. "Look, the East is Burning Red!"

While Shinn's face quickly started to turn red from embarrassment, the pilot did not miss even a moment of Bulkhead trying to contain his laughter at the ridiculousness of what had just unfolded before him, and unfortunately, Shinn had to hold that pose until Domon finally decided to break it and rejoin the previously mentioned celebration while making the two promise that they would be right behind him. Before they departed, Shinn threw a quick glare at Bulkhead and quietly snarled, "You say anything about any of that to _anyone_ , and the Decepticons will be the least of your worries."

"Don't worry, I won't say anything," Bulkhead managed to promise through his chuckles, and Shinn immediately took the lead of them, never knowing that Bulkhead was transferring the visual documents of the memory from his processor into a hard drive while quietly laughing the whole way back.

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID: ZGMF-CX42S Grand Destiny Gundam**

 **Pilot: Commander Shinn Asuka of the Z.A.F.T. Forces FAITH Unit, Gundam Team Member**

 **History: The third machine of what is considered the Destiny Gundam MS Group, it is sometimes considered the successor machine to the Arch Destiny Gundam. Hopefully it will have a better reputation than its predecessor had been given by its pilot, Evan Stanson.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: Though not normally used, as the Grand Destiny's pilot usually prefers to use its Anti-Ship Swords or Ascalon Beam Sword, the Grand Destiny is equipped with a pair of arm blades for close-combat. Their design is comparable to that of the wrist blades used by the Autobot Earth Division Leader, Bumblebee.**

 **Arm Blasters: the default, long-range weapon of the Grand Destiny, these blasters are comparable in design to that of the Autobot Wrecker, Wheeljack**

 **Alt Mode: A large bomber plane. Exact type of bomber plane is unknown due to full specifications of all Earth vehicles being lost to history beyond the basic descriptions.**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS:**

 **"Ragnarok" Beam Cannon: Mounted on the back of the machine, this large, long-range weapon is actually a fully restored version of the long-range heavy weapon used by the Arch Destiny, after it was recovered by friendly forces during the aftermath of the final battle in the Terrible Autobot Civil War. The cannon was given a few upgrades that make it easier to use, while simultaneously making it possible to deploy it more quickly in the field.**

 **"Ascalon" Beam Sword: Like the Ragnarok Cannon, this is also a weapon of the Arch Destiny that was recovered and upgraded during the aftermath of the Terrible Autobot Civil War. It is mounted on the Grand Destiny's left waist.**

 **Anti-Ship Swords: While similar in design and capabilities to the Anti-Ship sword of the Sword Impluse Gundam, the Anti-Ship swords of the Grand Destiny also possess the power of the Destiny Gundam's Arondight Beam Sword. The two blades are mounted on the back of the machine when they are not in use, and are capable of combining together to form a dual-bladed sword.**

 **Palma Beam Cannons: Like the two previous Destinys, the Grand Destiny has a pair of beam cannons mounted in the palm of its hands, which are capable of long-range and close-range combat. The closest relation one would find to these weapons is that they are similar to the repulsor weapons of the human comicbook hero Iron Man.**

 **Beam Shield Generator**

 **SPECIAL FEATURES/ABILITIES:**

 **Grand Destiny Breaker: A special, close to mid-range combat ability that is likely only usable by Shinn Asuka, thanks in some part to his training under the Gundam Fighter Domon Kasshu. Some would say that it is an adaption of Domon's Burning Finger or Sekiha Tenkyoken abilities. Shinn unleashes this ability by focusing a great deal of the energy from the machine's Energon Reactor Core into the Palma Beam Cannons before unleashing it all at once, whether it be as a close-range burst or a long-range energy blast.**

 **Grand Destiny Blazing Sword: An ability that is similar to the Grand Destiny Breaker, though it utilizes the overclock feature of the Ascalon Beam Sword before pushing said ability beyond its limits, thus causing the beam to become much larger than it would through simply overclocking, and also giving making the beam to seem as though it suddenly burst into flames. It is unknown at this time what the exact limitations of this ability are, but given that it was able to cleanly slice the machine known as the Dark Gundam in half with just one stroke, it is likely that this ability is probably one of the Grand Destiny's most powerful outside of the Grand Destiny Breaker.**

* * *

 ** _AN: So yeah, I sent Shinn and Bulkhead to universe of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, and I had Shinn learn under Domon. In all honesty, would you have really expected otherwise in this case?_**

 ** _Lunamaria: I wouldn't have._**

 ** _Rey: Nope._**

 ** _Ironhide: Me neither._**

 ** _Grimlock: Me, Grimlock saw that coming a mile away._**

 ** _Shinn: Come on guys, there's a ton of other Gundam universe I could've gone to, right?_**

 ** _AN: Well considering how many people have accused you of using the Destiny's Palma Beam Cannons as your own version of Domon's Burning/Shinning Finger move...no, not really, at least not while I was writing this story._**

 ** _Shinn: Ah screw you guys._**

 ** _AN: Lighten up, Shinn, at least you got a new power out of it, and yeah, I had Shinn do that whole song and dance we always saw Domon do with Master Asia because I thought it would be funny. And it was. HAHA!_**

 ** _Anyways, yeah, there really isn't all that much more I can say here about this chapter, but I can say that next chapter, we'll be taking a short moment to see how things are back in this story's main timeline, because I'm sure you're all wondering about that, and I feel that it needs to be addressed sooner or later, but beyond that, just move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _Various tasks and efforts and being put into place as the remaining defenders of Earth and Cybertron back home do everything they can to make sure that their worlds will be well defended and that they can bring their lost comrades home, while Rey and Springer find themselves in another Transformers dimension. Though the Decepticons are quite few in this world compared to the large number of Autobots, there is no denying that they are indeed a powerful force to be reckoned with. Can the power to unite in ways that Rey and Springer had only seen with specialized teams back in their universe allow the Autobots to win, and just what is it that Rey and Springer can do to help a team like this when they are struggling to prevent the same thing that the two of them are trying to prevent back home? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 23: Energon Extravaganza** ** _. Liberator, bear witness to new power in teamwork!_**

 ** _So does anyone know where Rey and Springer are going? Yes? No? I'll leave it up to you all to think about for now, but until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	23. Energon Extravaganza

_**AN: Hey guys, who's ready for another round of Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters?!**_

 _ **[audience applause]**_

 _ **Yes, thank you, thank you. Now, before we get on with the show, I'd like to address some reviews real quick. First off, in response to a review from "FlashDevil", I can understand why you would think that the Autobots of the universe Rey and Springer would be going to would likely already know about their dimension, but the reason they would not is because of this: In order to avoid too much confusion, I kinda like to think that things are set up so that this version of Transformers Energon had no connection to what happened due to Athrun and Smokescreen's arrival in that universe during the Armada timeline. Basically, this is following along the previously established continuity as if Athrun and Smokescreen never showed up during Transformers Armada, meaning that for these Autobots, none of that ever happened, and thus, things played out the way they had before.**_

 _ **Also, in response to the review posted by "kira444" back in Chapter 21, my good man, I think saying that this is getting nuts would be putting it mildly.**_

 _ **Shinn: Can you get a move on please?!**_

 _ **AN: Alright, alright. Keep your shirt on, Mister Student of the School of the Undefeated of the East. Anyways, Shinn here has something that he has to say in response to a review from last chapter.**_

 _ **Shinn: Yeah, specifically to "Many Faced Mage". First off, I do agree with you in regards to how much more embarrassing that particular dance you mentioned would be in comparison to the whole School of the Undefeated of the East thing I had to do with Domon, but as for everything else, you weren't the one who had to do it! The Ginyu Force and Team Rocket may be ridiculous in their little routines, but at least its funny to watch them doing that stuff, and that's the same thing here! You go and do that whole thing with Domon right down to a tee and then come back and tell me you don't find it a little embarrassing!**_

 _ **AN: Okay, I think he's done. [hits a control to signal for help]**_

 _ **Shinn: No, I'm not done! I've still got...[suddenly gets his mouth duck-taped shut before Captain America, Spider-Man, and Aelita from Code Avengers: Cosmic**_ _ **and Avenging Normandy drag him out of the room all while he's flailing around in protest]**_

 _ **AN: Yeah, that happened. So anyways, let's get on over to Rey and Springer as they brave the challenges in the world of Transformers Energon, right after we pop back home to see how things are going for everyone who did NOT get sucked into another dimension.**_

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 23: Energon Extravaganza**

 **Location: Earth…Well, the Main Earth…You Know What I mean**

The return from the Maelstrom Belt had been completely silent since they watched their friends get sucked into the strange anomaly that had formed when that energy blast collided with the two clashing saber swords that Optimus and Galvatron wielded, and aside from when the brightest minds on each ship would speak to each other in their attempts to analyze the event, it had remained as such until they had returned to the homeworld of humanity. Naturally, Lacus and Murrue both broke down into tears when they heard about what had happened to their respective husbands, but when the team revealed that their friends and loved ones were more than likely not dead, they seemed to perk up a bit. In addition to this, everyone who had stayed on Earth was a bit on edge when they first saw the Predacons enter the New Iacon Base, but when Bumblebee and the others reassured them that Predaking and his brethren were on their side now, they seemed to relax a little bit, even if there was no chance of being able to get used to the idea that the vicious beings were now on their side any time soon.

Still, even the matter of the Predacons being good guys now did not keep anyone from wondering the most important question of all. "Just what the hell happened to our guys," DaCosta finally asked once everyone that had gathered together to hear about what had unfolded in the previous battle.

"We're still looking over the data on that to be sure," Sai revealed as he glanced up from the computer he had been working on after transferring the data readings he had collected on the _Seraphim_ over to the New Iacon Base's computers. "At the moment though, all I can tell you is the same thing I saw when the anomaly first opened: that it was a tear in the fabric of the universe itself."

"There's a good chance that's exactly what it was," Bumblebee reasoned, drawing surprised looks from everyone that clearly stated that they needed an explanation on that. "About a year after we started up the Autobot Earth Division, some of the team and I were caught in a small Ground Bridge accident that transported us to another dimension; a dimension where everything we know was completely reversed. The Autobots were the bad guys, the Decepticons were heroes, Kira was a professional killer, Patrick Zala was the one who was crying out for peace while Lacus just wanted everything under her thumb, and…well, you get the idea."

"Yes, I remember that time," Drift commented. "It was actually rather disturbing to see how many of us could have been if we had not been on the righteous path of freedom and justice."

"So if you've all been through this before, then we could use the same method you used then to get the others back," Murrue asked, clearly hoping that was the case.

"Unfortunately not," Fixit immediately denied. "That was a localized event, and a much smaller one at that. From these readings that each of the five ships took, not only is this one much larger than the one that the Earth Division encountered, but it also does not seem to lead to the same world as that previous one did. If anything, I'd say it actually leads to multiple hurls…curls…WORLDS!"

"Are you saying that Shinn, Luna, Rey, and the others are all scattered throughout reality or something," Talia asked in concern and in an attempt to make sure she was understanding correctly.

"That does seem to be the case from what we're seeing here," Feldt revealed after looking over the data for a minute as well.

"I don't care what the case is. I just want to know how we're going to get them back, and preferably before the 'Cons get the chance to give Unicron his long awaited wake-up call," Ironhide growled, clearly upset by this whole development.

"We may already be too late for that," Bumblebee suddenly revealed, drawing everyone's attention to him once again. "Galvatron and Le Creuset both saw Optimus, Kira, and the others get sucked into that anomaly, same as us, and I doubt any of us would think that they would even consider taking very long to get their troops patched up before finishing what they started, so the chances of us stopping them from awakening Unicron now are not very good. We failed that mission the minute our guys fell out of this dimension, and since they know that some of our best warriors are currently MIA in the biggest way possible…"

"It's gonna be only a matter of time before they decide to just start coming after us with everything they have, with or without Unicron backing 'em up," Jazz finished.

"So basically, we've got two problems on our hands: getting our friends back and making sure the 'Cons don't try to hit us while we're down," Yzak reasoned as calmly as he possibly could at the moment.

Banagher eventually approached the screen displaying the readouts that the ships had taken of the anomaly, and after comparing them to the ones that the New Iacon Base had on file for the last time a portal to another dimension had opened, he eventually said, "Maybe we could still use the data from that last interdimensional trip to help us get our friends back. It's a long-shot, but it's still better than anything else we have at the moment."

"And that's also a big 'if' in regards to whether or not we can use that data for this at all," Fixit pointed out. "Plus, let's not forget that the Decepticons will more than likely want to expand their reach to the other worlds we've been to after everything that's happened."

"Fixit's right," Bumblebee nodded. "We can't just keep focusing our defense forces around Earth and Cybertron. Part of the reason we went out to those other colony worlds was to open up connections with them again, and if we just put all of our focus on these two worlds, then it will make it seem like we were just blowing smoke when we talked to their leaders."

"We barely have enough people to effectively defend Earth and Cybertron as it is, and now you're thinking of spreading us out even more than before by sending some guys to other planets," Hound asked incredulously.

"Right now, we don't really have a choice. We can't let the Decepticons think that we're even the least bit vulnerable."

"Bumblebee's right," Natarle agreed. "If they really think that we're helpless without Optimus and Kira, or any of those other fourteen here with us, then they'll try to hit us at every angle, and that doesn't stop at Earth and Cybertron; it extends to every world that we've been to and formed friendships and alliances with."

"So we send as much help as we can," Lacus nodded in agreement. "Right now, we need to do whatever is possible to bring back our lost friends and loved ones, but at the same time we must also make sure that our universe is protected, even without them, so that when they do return, they won't come home to a universe in ruins, but one where we were able to keep the peace we've worked so hard for safe and secure from the threat that currently lies before us. We've already asked the people of these other worlds to lend us their strength in this terrible storm, and now, let us do the same for them."

Everyone immediately smiled in confidence and agreement with Lacus's words, showing that they fully supported the supreme chairwoman of the PLANTs in her decision and that they were proud of the strength she was continuing to hold onto, despite the current circumstances, and they knew that they could do no less than she was willing to do. After letting the sentiment hang for a few more minutes, Bumblebee finally broke the silence as he began to give out orders to his friends and teammates. "Alright, Silverbolt, I want you and the Aerialbots to head for Velocitron. They don't have many flyers on that planet, so they'll be at a strong disadvantage if the 'Cons show up there," Bumblebee began as he looked to the leader of the Autobot team of flyers.

"Understood," Silverbolt nodded before motioning for his team to follow him to the launch deck so a ship could be prepared for them.

"Elita One, I'll want you to lead a team to Nebulos. They already know you best, so that should put them a little more at ease," Bumblebee continued. "Take as many of our guys with you that you can."

"Bumblebee, I'd like to request permission to join them on Nebulos," Leobreaker suddenly announced, speaking up for the first time since he arrived on Earth with the rest of his kind.

"Sorry Leobreaker, but I'm going to need you here on Earth," Bumblebee denied. "You'll be part of the team that will be safeguarding the off-site facility that our best science minds will be using to find and implement a way to get our friends home."

"Wait," Flay suddenly interrupted. "You mean that they won't be working here in New Iacon?"

"No. Messing with interdimensional travel like we did before was already risky enough, and considering what we'll be attempting this time around, I'd rather not take a chance of putting anyone at risk, especially since this base is right in the center of New Iacon," Bumblebee stated. After everyone nodded in understanding, Bumblebee then turned to his old friend and the Autobots' original chief medical officer and said, "Ratchet, I need you and Nicol to go to Cybertron."

"What for," Ratchet inquired, clearly thinking that Bumblebee was trying to move Ratchet out of the fight on Earth and into the one on his homeworld, something Ratchet did not want to do any more than necessary.

"Because you are the only one who can get us a certain kind of reinforcements from Cybertron. The _really_ big kind of reinforcement," Bumblebee revealed.

When he heard that, Ratchet's optics instantly widened in shock before he finally scoffed, "If I couldn't get him back online centuries ago, what makes you think that I will now?"

"Because last time you were trying to do so in the middle of a battle, and you didn't have someone to help you in the way that only a Mini-Con or a human could," Bumblebee explained. "That's why I'm sending Nicol to help you."

Ratchet looked over to the green haired pilot, who simply nodded in confidence, and that was all Ratchet needed to accept his assignment before requesting that he be given a minute to gather whatever tools he had at the base that would more than likely be useful. Eventually, everyone was assigned to some place, with Elita leading what was practically a small assault team to Nebulos, and the Dinobots, the Predacons, and what was left of the Wreckers on Earth to defend the Earth research facility that Banagher, Sai, Feldt, and Erica would be transferring to in order to find a solution to get their friends back home. Unfortunately, there was one small problem. "We don't have anyone to spare for Junkion, that is unless you want to send any human troops or any forces we'll need in addition to those guys out there," Ironhide stated.

"No, we can't send any Earth forces to these other worlds," Bumblebee denied. "We may have established peaceful relationships with these other planets, but I'd rather not let them think that it was just a ruse to hide any intents to take over those world by seeing human warships flying into their systems."

"Well we need Fixit and Blaster to coordinate our efforts from Earth and Cybertron, respectively, while the rest of us help to defend the rest of Earth, so what else can we do," Jazz asked.

 _"I'm actually having a thought about that, old chums,"_ a strikingly familiar voice suddenly called out over the comm.

"Sir, someone has hacked into our frequencies in an attempt to contact us," Fixit reported.

"Yeah, I noticed," Bumblebee deadpanned as he turned to face the visage of a familiar Transformer pirate. "What do you want, Thundertron?"

 _"Well first off, it's_ Captain _Thundertron,"_ the pirate replied rather pointedly before schooling his tone into its usual swagger again. _"Secondly, I merely wish to offer me services to you lot. Well, the services of meself and me loyal crew of most honest and true pirates."_

"And why should we trust you with anything like that? You're always doing things for yourself, and you don't have anything to gain from doing this," Jazz pointed out as he and the other remaining occupants of the command center all crossed their arms in suspicion.

 _"And yet you're more willing to trust those…rather ugly beasties,"_ Thundertron pointed out as he motioned over to the Predacons, eliciting growls from Predaking, Scourge, and Darksteel in response. _"But I won't deny that I do have something to gain from this. Ye see, if I do this, I'll be settling me debt to you lot."_

"Your debt," Bumblebee asked in both confusion and skepticism.

 _"Yes. After all, if it weren't for the steadfast and loyal services of yer mates, Shinn, Magnus, and those other blokes, I wouldn't have been able to reclaim the_ Lament _, and I honestly liked that Shinn lad, so I figured that this would be just a small way of repaying you lot for that, or at least starting to, savvy,"_ Thundertron finally stated.

In all honesty, Bumblebee could see how Thundertron could come to such a conclusion, but he still wanted to refuse the offer, knowing that it was not usually smart to just trust Thundertron at what he said in such instances. Still, there was no denying that they did not have a choice at the moment, so he eventually sighed in defeat and said, "Alright, we'll leave the reinforcement of Junkion to you and your crew, but I will be sending at least one Autobot up there to keep an eye on you."

 _"Fair enough Bungler Bug, old chum,"_ Thundertron shrugged in acceptance.

"It's Bumblebee," the Earth Division leader snapped before the communication line closed and he turned to the only Autobot he felt he could spare at the moment for Junkion, and the who he felt would be best for keeping the pirates in line. "Blurr, I'm sending you to Junkion. Try to make sure that _Captain_ Thundertron knows who's in charge when it comes to what's going on there. Oh, and you know how we're always telling you to not drive people you just meet crazy with the way you normally talk and stuff? In this case, forget about that, and go nuts."

"Yes sir, understood, no problem at all. I'll be on my way now, now, now," Blurr replied with a small smile of eagerness before he raced out to get his own ship for his travels.

"You are mean sometimes, Bumblebee," Jazz chuckled, knowing full well what the young 'Bot did just then.

Bumblebee could only smirk in reply to this before he became serious again. "Jazz, I'll want you to coordinate the defense efforts of Earth's orbital fleet along with DaCosta and Colonel Kisaka and their ships. You guys will be our first line of defense, so make sure that its solid enough to make even the 'Cons' Space Bridge work for it if they want to get through."

"Roger that," Jazz saluted before he transformed and prepared to head through a Ground Bridge to the space port that the _Eternal_ and the _Kusanagi_ were currently docked at once Kisaka and DaCosta had climbed into his vehicle mode.

"Ironhide, I'll want you with the team in the research facility helping to find a way to get our guys back," Bumblebee then told the weapons specialist, much to Ironhide's confusion.

"Uh, I don't know about that, Bee. I mean, I know everyone thinks I have some kind of smarts, but that mostly applies to battlefield strategies and weapons, not the big science stuff. I normally just leave that to guys like Ratchet and Wheeljack," Ironhide admitted while also giving Bumblebee a small reminder of his skills.

"Well Wheeljack's not here right now, and Ratchet's just left for Cybertron with Nicol, so you're the best we've got," Sai argued as he finished gathering everything he needed.

Ironhide seemed to think that over for a minute until he finally nodded in acceptance and moved to head for the Ground Bridge, which Fixit just finished reprogramming for the last team's destination. "Hope you boys have all got your kilts packed, because we're headed for Scotland," Erica quipped.

"Hold on! Aren't you forgetting someone," Yzak inquired as he gestured between himself, Dearka, Heine, and Shiho.

"No, I just thought it was obvious that you guys would be coming with us to the research facility," Bumblebee said. "Last line of defense should have all of our biggest guns on it, right?"

The four could only smirk with confidence in reply to Bumblebee's question, and they quickly suited up before moving to board their Gundams while Predaking made his way over to Bumblebee with a questioning look on his face. "What's a kilt," the Predacon leader inquired.

Bumblebee quickly cast a small glance in the direction of the human team members before he motioned for Predaking to lean in closer and whispered, "Humans have a tendency to reference various things in their very diverse culture when they talk about stuff, and that makes some of us think they are being a bit…strange, to put it mildly. In such instances, Optimus had often told me that he finds it best to just simply nod and roll out."

While that was not quite the answer he was hoping for, it was still good enough of an answer for Predaking, at least for the time being, so he quickly took Bumblebee's advice and just nodded and prepared to roll out with the others. Once everyone was gathered at the Ground Bridge, Bumblebee found that there was only one thing left to say to his team before they departed. "Let's rev up and roll out!"

* * *

 **Location: Wherever Rey and Springer Are**

"Okay, I know this is normally the part where I'm supposed to say something like 'We've been in worse situations than this', or something, but I'm pretty sure that neither of us has been in a situation that's worse than this, so I'd rather not lie just to make us both feel better right now," Springer commented to his human partner and friend as he flew through the stars in his helicopter mode.

"And Lunamaria says that _I'm_ a sourpuss," Rey muttered to himself in response. After the two were pulled into the strange anomaly that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then lost sight of their friends and comrades, they found themselves waking up in a small asteroid field that was most definitely not the Maelstrom Belt. More importantly though, was the fact that it was not in an area of space that either of them recognized, and after what little exploring they had done since they left the belt a few hours ago, that fact had not changed at all, which had led Springer to come up with a theory that Rey thought was just flat out ridiculous. "Do you really expect me to believe that we might be in another dimension or something," the blonde pilot of Liberator Gundam asked. "That seems like a bit much, even for us."

"And yet neither of us has been able to get even the smallest signal through to a Teletran One Station since we woke up, which shouldn't be difficult even if we were a galaxy away, and nothing about our current surroundings even matches anything in my known databases from what the Ancient Cybertronians had discovered of the universe," Springer argued.

"Space is infinitely vast with God only knows how much in it. Who's to say that the Ancient Cybertronians managed to map all of it," Rey pointed out.

"Okay, I'll give you that, but I know I picked up a trace of Cybertron in the exact place it should be in our universe, and yet there was not any Teletran One signal, or even an Autobot signal that I recognized, so how do you explain that," Springer quickly retaliated, clearly showing just how certain he was of his theory and eager to prove that he was right.

Rey just shook his head in slight annoyance and disbelief as he sighed, "Let's just keep moving and hope that someone is able to pick up the distress signal we've been sending out or that we find a planet to land on before you need an energon recharge."

If Springer were in robot mode at the moment, he would have shrugged in acceptance of that suggestion, even it was the very thing that they had been doing for what felt like days now, though it was more than likely only a few hours. Eventually though, they soon found that they did not need to wait for long until they found something that seemed to respond to their distress call. That something was actually a large, silver ship that had begun rising up from a small, very green planet, and the ship itself seemed to be split in the middle from the center of the ship to the front, while a large, curvature seemed to house some of the ship's thrusters in a way that was rather similar to the _Archangel_ 's, while a much larger thruster engine was mounted in a circular structure on the very back of the ship. After studying the large ship for a minute or so, Springer and Rey eventually managed to see that something had come out of the ship and was now standing on the deck, and after using the Liberator's scanners to zoom in on the figure, Rey was able to see that the figure was actually a red, black, and blue armored Transformer who wore the Autobot sigil on the front of his right shoulder, and that same Transformer was apparently waving them over to the ship.

When Rey reported this to Springer, the triple-changer quickly asked, "Well, what do you think?"

"Well the guy is wearing a friendly sigil, and his ship also has the Autobot sigil on its right side, so unless this guy is part of a splinter group like Sentinel's team, I don't think we really have any reason to doubt him," Rey reasoned.

Springer had to agree with Rey's sentiment, and since neither of them could see any reason to disagree with that, they both immediately changed their course so that they could land on the ship in front of the red, black, and blue armored Autobot. Once they landed, they quickly saw that in the time that had passed during their approach, the first Autobot had become accompanied by three other Autobots and a pair of what they could only assume were humans. The first Autobot they noted had yellow and blue armor, and his shoulder armor seemed to be his vehicle mode's doors, while the front of said vehicle mode was mounted on his back, and in comparison to his three companions, it was clear he was likely the shortest of the group, but only by a small amount. The second Autobot was clearly a flyer, at least if the wings on his shoulders and legs were any indication, and he had red, white, and dark grey armor, while an orange visor covered his optics. The final Autobot of the group was an Autobot who's head was situated right in the center of a large turret of guns, a sensor, and a large set of lights, and he had red and blue armor that had hints of yellow on his arms, head, and legs, while a black helmet was atop his head.

After taking another minute or so to look over the four Autobots, Rey's attention quickly went to the two humans, and he quickly saw that they were clearly wearing a set of specialized space suits that were a bit comparable to his own pilot suit, with a few obvious differences. The first human, who was obviously a boy if his build was anything to go by, wore a suit that was mostly black with white and blue padding, with the chest armor bearing the Autobot sigil on the left hand side and seemingly being held in place by a series of red harnesses, and a helmet that only showed his eyes through its black visor. Another thing Rey could not help but note was that somehow, he could tell that the boy was likely glaring at him through the visor of his helmet, even though Rey could not see the mystery boy's eyes through the darkened glass. The other human on the other hand, who was obviously a young woman, seemed to be much more calm in her attitude towards Rey and Springer, and her suit was mostly colored yellow with some light orange highlights, a white belt, and the red Autobot sigil being the only exceptions to this, and also unlike her male companion, Rey could actually see all of the woman's face through the blue tinted visor of her helmet.

While they were curious about the identities of their rescuers, Rey and Springer decided it would be best to learn such things after they had landed on the ship, so they said nothing beyond what was being said in their repeated distress signal until they had finally landed on the ship's deck, with Springer transforming into his bipedal mode the minute he was close enough. "Welcome friends, to the _Miranda II_ ," the red, black, and blue armored Autobot greeted in a voice that sounded similar, but not quite as deep as Optimus's. "We received your distress call just moments ago and were about to move to its original location to see if we could provide assistance."

"Sorry for the trouble then, but we thought it would be better to keep moving so that we didn't attract any unwanted attention," Springer nodded in reply.

"That makes sense, considering the Decepticons are probably listening in from wherever they are so that they know when the best time to strike is," the red and dark grey Autobot nodded in understanding. "But just who are you guys anyway?"

"My name's Springer. I'm part of the Autobot Earth Division," the triple-changer replied with a quick salute just as Rey was disembarking from his machine.

"I'm Rey Za Burrel of the Z.A.F.T. Special Forces, FAITH unit, and pilot of the Liberator Gundam," Rey stated with a quick salute.

"Of the what forces," the male human suddenly asked in a rather agitated sounding tone, and if one were to judge by how young his voice sounded, Rey had to guess that the guy was probably a teenager, probably at least sixteen years old if Rey were to hazard a guess. "Are you guys completely flipped or something, and I've been around every Autobot that's ever been on Earth my whole life, and I've never seen or heard of a guy named Springer before."

"Kicker, would it kill you to try and be nice to these guys, considering there's no telling what kind of shape they're in right now," the girl reprimanded her friend in a hushed tone.

"Sorry about him," the red, black, and blue Autobot said with a slightly tired tone, indicating that he had been dealing with the boy's attitude for some time now. "Kicker's not one to easily trust others so easily, but more importantly, you should know about who we are. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. With me are some of my finest troops: Hot Shot, Jetfire, and Ironhide, and of course, I can't forget about our good friends and allies, Kicker Jones and Misha Miramond."

When he heard the names of the Autobots before them, Springer's optics only widened for a split second before his expression turned smug as he turned to his blonde companion and said, "HA! In your face, Rey! Admit it; I totally called it."

"Yeah, yeah, okay; you were right," Rey admitted in slight defeat.

"Uh, what's got you so excited," Ironhide eventually asked, voicing the confusion that each of his teammates were suddenly feeling.

"Just the fact that I already knew the reason why you guys have never heard of us until now, long before we even met you, and Rey here, was quick to dismiss it," Springer boasted.

"You know, considering what that means for our situation, I wouldn't really consider that as something to be happy about, Springer," Rey pointed out, quickly making Springer's face fall from the proud expression he had been wearing.

"Lunamaria's right; you _are_ a sourpuss," Springer grumbled in retort, making Rey wince a little at having his earlier words that were said as a light joke being reflected back at him.

"Well if you two are done with your cryptic talk, would you mind filling us in," Hot Shot asked, cutting into the two's conversation before he and the others became any more lost than they already were.

"Right, sorry," Springer nodded in consent. "The reason why you've never heard of us or the organizations we're part of is because we're from an alternate universe."

"An alternate universe? Yeah right," Kicker scoffed. "How do we know you guys aren't part of some crazy plan that Megatron has cooked up to get more energon for Unicron?"

"Wait, Megatron is trying to revive Unicron here in your universe," Rey asked in surprise along with Springer.

"Yeah, he has been for a while now, even after what Alpha Q did in order to keep it from happening," Misha explained.

"Alpha Q? You mean…he's alive here," Rey gasped in further surprise.

"Depends on what you mean by alive," Kicker shrugged before he looked up and pointed to the nearby sun that the planet was orbiting around, which Rey noticed was a bright red color, but not the same shade of red that one would expect from a red giant star. "See, that energon sun up there is actually Alpha Q himself, and he allowed himself to become that so that the planet we're above and all the planets in this immediate solar system could be given life."

"Wow," Springer gasped in awe. "That's pretty amazing."

"If you think that's amazing, then you'll really like this," Ironhide told the triple-changer. "Kicker here is actually able to communicate with Alpha Q telepathically."

"Hey, don't go blabbing stuff like that," Kicker snapped as he delivered a hard kick to Ironhide's leg.

"OW! Hey what're you kicking me for now, huh?! I'm just trying to be friendly is all," Ironhide snapped back.

The other Autobots and Misha just groaned at the two's antics before Jetfire looked over to the Liberator Gundam and asked, "So how come that guy is being so quiet?"

Rey quickly raised an eyebrow in confusion before he followed Jetfire's gaze to see who the aerial Autobot was talking about and then quickly explained, "The Liberator may run on an Energon Reactor Core, but it's not a living being. It's just a Gundam-class mobile suit."

"A what," the heroes of this dimension asked in confusion, including Kicker and Ironhide, who had ceased their quarreling when Rey had spoken up to explain about his Gundam.

"You know, if the Decepticons are such a big threat right now, maybe we shouldn't be talking out in the open like this," Springer pointed out. "Any chance we can either talk inside the ship or at whatever base you guys have set up on the planet?"

Everyone immediately nodded in agreement with Springer's sentiment on the matter, and they were all quickly entering the _Miranda II_ so that they could return to Jungle Planet's surface where the other Autobots of this dimension were currently waiting for them, each of them all eager to hear more about the other the minute that they reached the base.

* * *

A few hours later, the _Miranda II_ had landed on the surface of Jungle Planet, and Rey and Springer could not help but marvel at the sight of the vast, lush green planet full of massive forests and plants. To be honest, the entire planet seemed almost like it was a second, better version of Earth given how rich it was with life and the fact that barely even the smallest amount of its ecosystem was touched by pollution or any other aspect of industrialization that the home planet of humanity had been dealt. The only thing that was more surprising to them about this planet was that some of the animal life on the planet had grown to an incredible size due to the planet being so rich in the nutrients they needed to live and energon, as evidenced by the fact that they saw a dragonfly that was almost the size of a motorcycle, though Kicker felt that it would it be better to say it was the size of a house. Of course, the planet they had landed on and its rich life was not really capturing Rey and Springer's attention as anything more than a passing notice.

The thing that had their attention at the moment was the story of this dimension's history, which Optimus, Kicker, and Misha had explained to them on their way down to the planet. Many years ago, some time before Kicker and Misha were born, the Autobots had managed to end a long-lasting war with the Decepticons and formed a peaceful coexistence with their former enemies, and it was not that much later that they had begun sharing peaceful, open relationships with Earth and humanity, thanks in no small part to a trio of young adults that the Autobots had met when their previous war had brought them to Earth. Kicker and Misha were actually small children when they first met the Autobots, and they had actually been spending a great deal of their lives around the Autobots ever since, helping them to mine and discover new sources of energon, until the peace that the Autobots had worked so hard to maintain was suddenly shattered.

Apparently the Alpha Q of this universe had actually started out as the Autobots' enemy, and he had sent a number of animal-like Transformers known as Terrorcons to Earth so that he could use the energon that was being mined there to revive Unicron. Rey was shocked to hear that Alpha Q would be willing to do something like that in this universe, and immediately assumed that it was because the Quintesson was just a servant of the Chaos Bringer in this universe until Kicker explained that Alpha Q believed reviving Unicron would allow him to restore his planet, which was destroyed by the planet-sized Transformer. Rey could only nod in understanding of this, as he knew what it was like to be so desperate for something that you would do just about anything for it, but the next part of the story actually shocked Rey a little. In his attempt to revive Unicron, Alpha Q ended up accidentally bringing Megatron back from the dead, and the revived Decepticon leader immediately seized control of Unicron from Alpha Q, save for the head of the Chaos Bringer, which Alpha Q used as a vehicle to make his escape in.

Ever since then, the Autobots had been battling the now revived Decepticons as their enemies once more, who were all following Megatron's orders to revive Unicron so that he could use the planet-sized Transformer as his ultimate weapon of chaos and destruction. In that time, Megatron had even reformatted some of his old troops so that they were more powerful than before, usually after they had suffered a great deal of injuries in battle, but even so, there was no denying that a vast majority of the Decepticons' numbers was comprised of Terrorcons, while the actual Decepticons were easily outnumbered by the Autobots, despite having a great deal of power behind them. That power had not really served the Decepticons all that well in the most recent developments of the battle against the Autobots, as Alpha Q managed to use Unicron's head to deal a great deal of damage to the Chaos Bringer's body before transforming himself and said head into the energon sun that was now brightly shinning down the planet they were currently standing on, as well as a number of other, energon-rich planets that apparently made up the various aspects of Alpha Q's lost home.

That was not stopping Megatron though, a fact that did not surprise Rey or Springer in the least, as the Decepticons were now working harder than ever to recover energon from these various new planets in order to restore Unicron to life once again. So far, the Autobots had failed to save one of the various planets that made up this little corner of the universe, but ever since, they had somehow managed to secure the remaining planets by setting up a number of large towers on the remaining planets that could activate a specialized energon barrier that was harmful to anything that was not an Autobot or one of their allies, such as Kicker and Misha. After finally allowing all of this to process, Rey and Springer soon found themselves divulging their own stories to their hosts, while at the same time taking note of the other Autobots that had joined them since they landed.

A good number of the Autobots in this dimension seemed to share the exact same characteristics with one and other, immediately telling the two that they were likely the Omnicons that Kicker and Misha had told them about when they were telling their universe's story to the two, but they were still able to note the main designs of the three different versions of Omnicons. The first of the three was a sand-yellow and black Transformer with the Autobot sigil emblazed on the front of his left shoulder and characteristics that quickly told the two that he likely turned into some type of jeep. The second Omnicon clearly turned into a jet if the wings on his arms were any indication, and was colored white and red while the Autobot sigil was worn on his wings. Finally, the third and final Omnicon was mostly colored blue and tan, with one arm looking more like a large cannon than an actual arm, and if they had to guess, Rey and Springer could only assume that he turned into some type of tank.

Moving on from the three types of Omnicons allowed Rey and Springer to analyze the other Autobots as they were introduced. The first Autobot was one that Rey quickly recognized to be Rodimus of this universe, given how much like the late, previous Prime the red and gold Autobot appeared, however, Kicker and the others quickly explained that while Rodimus was a legendary leader among the Autobots, he was never a Prime like Optimus, but instead was actually second-in-command of the Autobots here. Moving on from Rodimus, allowed Rey and Springer to be acquainted with a few other Transformers that were actually alternate versions of their friends back home. Such Autobots started with a blue and black Autobot who was revealed to be this universe's version of Prowl, and it turned out that he had served as Rodimus's second-in-command before they had joined up with the main Autobots. Another Autobot that was actually another version of one of the ones the two knew was actually Wing Saber, who was mostly red with blue legs and white arms, but that was where the list of alternate versions of their friends came to an end, because after that point, there were only two other Autobots that were alternate versions of their friends back home, and their identities proved to be rather shocking to Rey and Springer.

The first of these two shockers actually came from the lone female Autobot of the team, who identified herself as the leader of all Omnicons, and she informed them that she was actually an alternate version of none other than Arcee. The reason for Rey and Springer's shock was due more to her appearance than anything, as this version of Arcee wore armor that was white and pink as opposed to the mostly blue armor with a few hints of pink that their version of Arcee was known for. Aside from that, her attitude proved to be rather similar to their Arcee's, yet she was also a bit more calm and level-headed as well. The second shocker was actually from an Autobot that was clearly the eldest of them, if his grandfather-like voice was any indication, as he revealed himself to be this universe's version of Bulkhead. Of course, the fact that Bulkhead was so old in this universe was really the only shocking thing about him, because the only other major differences was that his armor was a lighter shade of green and he clearly turned into a helicopter as opposed to an SUV.

Moving on from Autobots who's names Rey and Springer recognized allowed them to acquaint themselves with those that they did not. This really only included a white and black armored Autobot by the name of Downshift, a large, orange and blue Autobot called Landmine, and an army green, brown, and gold colored Autobot that was about the same size as Ironhide and Jetfire known as Cliffjumper. Admittedly, Rey and Springer had both heard about the Cliffjumper of their universe, but Rey had never met the deceased Autobot before while Springer had only seen him in passing, so neither of the two were very shocked to learn of this final Autobot's identity.

"Man, and I thought we had a rough time keeping the Decepticons from getting their hands on any energon, but it sounds like you guys and your friends had even more of a rough time with them than us in general," Kicker suddenly commented in slight awe when the two had finished their story, bringing Rey and Springer's full attention on to the group before them.

"Well I wouldn't say that about us, personally," Rey shrugged. "It's mostly guys like Kira, Athrun, Cagalli, Optimus and some of the others that had really experienced all of that."

"Yeah, Rey and I really only came into things when the Autobot Civil War started, and that was back before it had even become known as the Autobot Civil War," Springer nodded in agreement.

"Still, to think that Cybertron had actually become completely lifeless at one point in another lifetime," Prowl muttered to himself.

"I know," Rodimus acknowledged. "It's not a pleasant thing to think about for any of us."

"No kidding," Hot Shot agreed. "It sounds like something straight out of our worst nightmares. Neither side wins in our struggle with the Decepticons and everything we had been fighting for was all gone."

Everyone fell silent at that, unable to do anything more to acknowledge Hot Shot's words in sadness, until Kicker suddenly snapped them all out of it when he harshly reasoned, "Hey, what're you all getting so depressed about this for? I get that things went bad for Rey, Springer, and their friends back home, but that's no reason for any of you to think that the same will happen here, so quit being all depressed and get it together!"

The young man easily punctuated his words by delivering a hard kick into Ironhide's leg, prompting the young 'Bot to jump in shock while grasping said appendage before he snapped, "Hey, what're you kicking me for?! I didn't do or say anything!"

"Well you were gonna, and that was reason enough," Kicker heatedly retorted.

"I was not, and that isn't a reason at all," Ironhide argued.

As Rey watched the two bicker back and forth, he could not help but smile a little in good humor, as watching Kicker go at it with his friends like this reminded him a little of some of the times when certain members in his little group of friends would react in similar ways, and eventually, the smile ended up evolving into a small round of chuckles. This did not escape any of the Autobots' notice, and soon prompted Jetfire to ask, "Hey, what're you laughing at?"

"Sorry, I can't help it," Rey admitted as he looked over to Kicker and Ironhide. "You two just remind me of a couple of friends of mine back home."

The instant he finished saying that, he found himself falling into laughter again, with Springer joining him soon enough, while the others could only just stare at the two in confusion, some thinking that the two had probably lost their minds. When all the laughter finally subsided, Rey looked over at the Autobots again as he asked, "You guys mentioned something about an ability that a lot of you seem to have called powerlinxing. Any chance you could explain that a little more to us?"

"In a way, it's kind of how the Autobots give a full display of how they're stronger as a team than they are on their own," Misha replied with a small smile.

"Exactly," Optimus nodded in approval. "You see, each full-fledged Autobot possesses what's known as the Combination Spark, and that's what allows them to combine together with each other. In doing so, the two's strength fuse with one another's, and then allows them to become even more powerful than either of them could be on their own."

"Yeah, but not every Autobot with the ability to powerlinx can combine with each other," Downshift stated. "There are some limits to what we can do with that ability."

"Like what," Springer asked.

"Well for starters, you have to have a similar formatting and size in order to effectively powerlinx with another Autobot," Jetfire explained. "And more importantly, you have to practice with the power after you first receive it until you can do it perfectly. One of the biggest matters in doing so is learning how to synchronize your breathing with that of your partner's, isn't that right, Ironhide?"

"Aw come on! It didn't take me that long to get it right," Ironhide whined, knowing that Jetfire was referring to how long he had to practice with the aerial Autobot before he could effectively powerlinx with another Autobot.

"Hate to break it to you, partner, but in case you've forgotten, it wasn't until a serious battle when you finally managed to get powerlinxing right for the first time," Kicker lightly reminded his friend.

"Hey, who asked you," Ironhide snapped in annoyance.

"So any Transformer can have a Combination Spark, but they can only powerlinx with another one if they're of similar size," Springer asked in an attempt to get back on track.

"Not exactly," Wing Saber stated. "There are other types of powerlinxing, one of which I'm actually part of. You see, Optimus is able to powerlinx with a team of drones known as the Prime Force, which in a sense can allow him to gain a super mode, or he and I can combine together for a similar kind of mode."

"And then there's guys like me and Bulkhead here who use our Combination Sparks to form a brute mode," Landmine then picked up. "It's this special mode where we use certain parts of our vehicle modes to give us additional armor that makes us stronger and provides us with additional firepower."

"I see," Rey nodded in understanding.

"Don't your Autobots have something like that in your universe," Downshift asked.

"Not exactly," Springer shrugged. "I mean, the closest thing we have to that would be combination teams like the Aerialbots, the Protectobots, the Combaticons, and the Constructicons."

"Still, there is one overlying fact here that we should probably address," Rodimus stated as he looked between his teammates and the pair from another dimension. "What should we do about Rey and Springer's situation?"

"What do you mean by that," Kicker asked. "They can help us keep the Decepticons from destroying Alpha Q's planets to get more energon for Unicron."

"Except this isn't their fight, Kicker. This isn't even their universe," Optimus reminded his young friend. "We have no right to ask them to involve themselves in our battles when they've already got their own war to get back to."

"We're still going to help," Rey stated, surprising everyone when he spoke up.

"Hey even if this isn't our universe, we're still part of the Autobots and any other team that's fighting for peace and freedom, so that means that any fight you guys have with the 'Cons is our fight too. We'll just be looking for a way to get back home in between all of that," Springer shrugged in agreement.

Everyone of the heroes of this universe had to smile and then give some voice of thanks to the two outsiders, and they all quickly promised to do everything they could to help Rey and Springer find a way back home again if there was anything that they could do before they all split up to start planning for whatever the Decepticons of this universe would try next.

* * *

A few hours later saw Kicker and Ironhide racing across Jungle Planet in a search for other energon mining sites that would not affect the planet too greatly with Rey following along in the Liberator's tank mode as backup if necessary, and while Kicker was a bit frustrated at not finding anything so far, he knew that it was better not to rush these things, so he simply bared with it for the moment. After a few moments, Rey eventually broke the rather tense silence as he said, "You know, for someone who's so hot-headed and quick tempered, you really care a lot about the Autobots and their situation, Kicker."

"Well that's a bit random," Kicker replied, having not expected that from Rey at all. "But, really, why wouldn't I? The Autobots are doing everything they can, and they're kinda my best friends."

"Yeah, well you have a funny way of showing it," Ironhide commented, and his reward for his quip was a swift kick to his rear bumper from Kicker. "Case and point," Ironhide immediately grumbled.

"What I mean is that you just don't usually seem like someone who'd really go out of his way like this, and yet you're out here searching for other energon sources that the Autobots really need," Rey elaborated.

"Well if it were a few months ago, you wouldn't be saying that," Ironhide revealed, grabbing Rey's attention. "Back when I first met Kicker, he actually couldn't stand us, and he was always more interested in looking out for himself, but now, it's hard to think of such times because he's such a team player now and he's always worrying about us like a real teammate."

"Come on, I wasn't that bad," Kicker protested.

"Kicker, you once raised Ocean City just because you were bored and wanted some air, you would always blaze past any guard at the gate, and a lot of times, you would complain about how Optimus ran things and even went around barking orders like you thought you were in charge or something," Ironhide instantly reminded his friend.

"Well that was then, and it was before a lot of stuff happened that made me see reason about why Optimus does things the way he does and such," Kicker shrugged in admittance. "Besides, you really think I'd let you guys just go and do something stupid for some noble cause when there's a better way?"

"Awe, you see, Rey? He really cares about us," Ironhide teased.

"You want to get kicked again, Ironhide? Then keep talking," Kicker warned his friend, and the Autobot immediately shut up, seeing as he had already been kicked three times that day alone.

Rey could not help but admire Kicker for his change as a person, as it reminded him a little of how he had changed in the past few years. It still haunted his dreams every now and again when he thought of how he had once believed that the only way for him to live was by emulating Rau Le Creuset and doing whatever others thought was best, namely in the cases of Durandal and Sentinel, and it was even more so when he thought of what could have happened if he had not been steered back onto the right path. That was why he was extremely grateful for Shinn and the others opening his eyes to the truth when they had, and he could tell that it was actually pretty similar for Kicker. Before anyone could comment any further on either matter though, Rey noticed a faint glow had suddenly erupted beneath Kicker's helmet, and while it made the blonde pause in confusion, Ironhide quickly knew full well that such a thing could only mean one of two things, and the Autobot was praying that it was the good one of those two things.

Sadly, such prayers were in vain, as Kicker quickly shouted, "Stop! Turn around! The enemy's here! We've gotta get back and warn the others!"

"What? Are you sure," Ironhide asked as he screeched to a halt, though he knew that it was not likely all that necessary to argue with Kicker since he was usually right about these types of things.

"Like you even have to ask. Now get moving, will ya," Kicker retorted.

Ironhide did not need to be told twice, and he immediately put metal to the pedal in a race back to the rest of his team, with Rey following from behind in the air, having transformed the Liberator to its Gundam mode since he knew that his Gundam would be able to get their faster in said mode than it would be in vehicle mode. Of course, that still left something unanswered for them. "Why are they attacking though," Rey asked. "I thought that the Energon Grid you guys set up was able to keep the Decepticons away from the planet, and that they knew that it was impossible to approach now that it was up."

"Yeah, and that's what really bugs me," Kicker admitted.

"Hey, didn't Misha say that she and some of the others were shutting the tower down for a few minutes to do some maintenance work or something," Ironhide suddenly remembered.

"Yeah but even if the Decepti-creeps knew about that, they'd have to know that's also not a lot of time for them to raid that much energon from this planet, so they must be here for something else," Kicker reasoned.

"Whatever the case, we'll probably know more when we meet up with the others," Rey cut in, silently telling the two to put their focus on the upcoming battle, to which Kicker and Ironhide could only nod in response before they all finished the journey back in silence.

* * *

Thankfully, Kicker was not the only one to pick up on the incoming enemy attack, as the _Miranda II_ and the Energon Tower's early warning systems also detected the incoming assault, and it was not long after Springer and the Autobots of this dimension had come outside that the Decepticons were soon in sight. Leading the pack was a silver and grey armored Decepticon with a pair of green cannons atop his shoulders, and blue wings and horns, and given the evil presence he seemed to give off, Springer did not need to be an expert to know that this was the Megatron of this universe. Moving his gaze to the other Decepticons immediately allowed Springer's optics to fall on the familiar form of Snowcat, who the triple-changer only recognized due to the fact that he looked exactly like his Eradicon doppelganger, and a few other Decepticons that he only recognized from studying the video files that the Autobots had on the _Miranda II_.

The first of these Decepticons was this universe's version of Starscream, which Springer quickly noted was mostly black and silver, and carried a large, dark green rifle and sword, and after getting a closer look at the Decepticon through the scope of his blasters, Springer could easily see a bit of a scar on the right side of Starscream's face. He then noticed a 'Con with a green body and brown legs, and who clearly had a green truck bed on his back, showing exactly what his alt. mode was, and from the way he seemed to be sticking close to Snowcat, it was clear that this was the Demolisher of this universe. Springer then took note of what was once this universe's version of Tidal Wave, who had now been formatted into Mirage, and even though the large Decepticon seemed like he possessed enough firepower to have been Tidal Wave once upon a time, Springer found he still had a hard time believing such a thing due to how small Mirage was in comparison to Tidal Wave. One of the more notable Decepticons was a 'Con that was mostly purple with a few hints of green in his armor and more notably on the large cannon that acted as his left arm, and given that he only had one optic, Springer found he had to remind himself that this guy was known as Shockblast and not Shockwave, even though the two seemed so similar to one and other in everything but attitude and personality, at least if what the triple-changer read was anything to go by.

Moving on from the Decepticons allowed Springer to study the various Terrorcons that were swarming down on the planet from above, and while he noticed how most of them were indeed quite animal-like, with the common animal forms being that of a tiger, a hawk, and rhinoceros beetle, it did little to distract him from the figure leading the animal beasts. The Decepticon leading the Terrorcons was a large being with a green body, large, orange claws for hands, and a pair of treads for legs, while a long, green tail extended out of his back, while a green visor covered his dark red optics. Seeing how easily that this particular Decepticon commanded the Terrorcons instantly told Springer that this was the former servant of Alpha Q, and this universe's version of the evil entity that had once ruled Nebulos: Scorponok.

Before Springer could analyze these Decepticons for any longer, the enemy forces were already bearing down on him and this universe's Autobots with everything they had, while the Terrorcons instantly swarmed towards the tower, and in a manner that was almost like clockwork, Springer and the Autobots were quickly returning fire in defense of both the tower and the planet, hoping that they could buy Misha, and the Omnicons Strongarm, Skyblast, and Signal Flare the time they needed in order to finish running the tower's maintenance and bring it back online. Of course, there was still no denying the small detail that made this attack strange.

"Even if Megatron did know that the tower was down for maintenance, there's no way he'd risk sending so many of his forces out like this without a good reason, so why are they here," Rodimus questioned as he fired his blaster at the enemy.

"Who cares about that right now? They're here and they're lookin' for a beatin', so I say we give it to 'em," Bulkhead chuckled as he fired his own weapons while assuming his brute mode, while Landmine did the same.

Eventually they found out the reason for the sudden enemy attack, as Megatron swooped down and shouted, "Optimus, I know you and your Autobots are holding some kind of special energon technology, and I fully intend to take it even if I have to pry it out of your lifeless servos!"

"What're you talking about, Megatron," Optimus snarled as he evaded the enemy's attacks while returning fire with his own blaster.

"Don't play coy with me, Prime. Just hand over this new energon power source and we'll leave you in fewer pieces than I had originally intended to leave you in," Megatron retorted, never noticing how Springer's optics had widened in realization, indicating that triple-changer likely figured out what the Decepticons were here for.

That was why when Rey, Kicker, and Ironhide showed up, Springer was decidedly not happy to see them, and quickly shouted, "Rey get out of here! The Decepticons are here for the Energon Reactor Core!"

Rey immediately jumped a little in his cockpit at hearing this, and while everyone other than himself and Springer were confused, it was not to the point where none of them were able to understand what the triple-changer meant by his words. Unfortunately, Megatron was the first to recover, and he immediately smirked as his optics gazed upon the silver and white form of the Liberator Gundam and said, "So your newest recruit has the device we seek, does he Optimus? Okay, I'm game; we'll play it your way. I'll force to you watch as it rip it from his lifeless hands!"

"Good luck, because that's the only way you're getting your hands on it, Mega-Moron," Rey shouted as he raised the Liberator's arm blasters and opened fire, with Ironhide firing his head-mounted cannons shortly after while the other Autobots did everything they could to take down the Decepticons as they started converging on Rey's position.

The Autobots' efforts did not seem to slow down any of the Decepticons, as they did everything they could to get through the defensive line that the heroic Transformers were quickly forming around the Gundam, whether it be having the Terrorcons swarm the Autobots in endless waves, Shockblast firing his arm cannon at its maximum power, Demolisher letting loose a barrage of fire from the massive cannon on his back, or really anything else that they could throw at the Autobots. Eventually, Starscream vanished from sight and then suddenly reappeared almost directly next to the Liberator, but Rey was quick to react by having the DRAGOONs extend out and then launch from the disk on the Liberator's back, immediately driving the vanishing Decepticon away from him and into Springer and Landmine's line of fire.

After chasing Starscream away from his friend, Springer quickly took things to a new level as he flew in to engage Mirage directly, transforming into his bipedal mode the minute he was close enough to the formerly massive Decepticon, while aiming his fists forward. Mirage was quick to attempt a retaliation by firing his cannons at Springer, but the triple-changer simply shrugged the attack off as best as he could before he collided directly into Mirage, sending them both tumbling across the ground until Springer finally leapt off of the Decepticon with an easy spin through the air to help him land back on his pedes. Once he had hit the ground again, Springer immediately transformed into his ground-based vehicle mode to race back onto the battlefield, knocking Demolisher off his feet along the way as he did. After he was next to the Liberator again, Springer immediately returned to bipedal mode and armed his blasters again so that he could fire on the Decepticons and Terrorcons that were currently after his friend. Glancing around the battlefield, he could not help but cringe a little when he saw Kicker fighting with this universe's version of the Energon Saber, because while Springer did know that Kicker's sword was nothing like the one that Sentinel had used in the previous war, the thought of said weapon still brought about some bad memories for him.

Still, such things did not matter at the moment, as Springer quickly shook himself out of the bad memories so he could turn to Rey as calmly as possible and demand, "What the scrap are you still doing here, Rey? You've got to leave now, or at least get into the tower or the _Miranda II_ before these guys have a chance to capture you and your machine! If they get their hands on the Energon Reactor Core, there's no telling what will…"

"I know that Springer, but I'm not leaving you here to fight these guys alone," Rey interrupted in retort. "I realize that these other Autobots are out here fighting with you, but you and I are partners, so that means I've got to watch your back as much as you watch mine."

"Oh please tell me that idiot isn't about to go on with one of the Autobots' irritating speeches about teamwork," Shockblast groaned in irritation, having had to heard that multiple times before and after he had joined up with Megatron's cause, and despite his usual attitude towards them, Shockblast's fellow Decepticons had to agree with him.

"They just never learn do they," Hot Shot asked in a half-joking manner. "Our teamwork is what makes us strong and why they'll never beat us."

"Right, so let's show them the proof of that Hot Shot," Rodimus agreed. "Let's link-up!"

"Roger that," Hot Shot nodded in agreement.

"Downshift," Prowl called out.

"You've got it," Downshift nodded in agreement, while Jetfire and Cliffjumper quickly nodded to one another as well, and shortly after these exchanges, the three pairs of Autobots leapt into the air and commenced their various link-ups.

"Hot Shot/Rodimus…powerlinx!"

"Prowl/Downshift…powerlinx!"

"Jetfire/Cliffjumper…powerlinx!"

The next thing anyone knew, Hot Shot, Prowl, and Jetfire had transformed themselves into the upper halves of a body while Rodimus, Downshift, and Cliffjumper changed into the legs, and not a minute after, each of the three pairs combined themselves together, giving one another a full form as soon as they did. Where Hot Shot's yellow and blue form was situated atop Rodimus's red and gold one, Prowl had done the same with Downshift, and Jetfire with Cliffjumper, giving Rey and Springer their first full look of what powerlinxing looked like, and needless to say, the heroes from the Cosmic Era were in awe of what they saw. Of course, such awe was only magnified when Powerlinx Hot Shot charged forth and used a barrage of fire power that neither Hot Shot or Rodimus possessed on their own, while Powerlinx Prowl raced around the enemy forces so fast that he was little more than a blue and silver blur, and Powerlinx Jetfire was easily rocketing through the air while unleashing a flurry of firepower on the enemy as easy as you please, proving that these Autobots really did become stronger when they combined together like this.

"That is…" Springer started to say.

"Awesome," Rey finished in a breathless tone for his friend.

Of course, Megatron did not share the two's awe-struck feelings, but rather was more infuriated than anything. "I will not be denied," Megatron roared as he charged towards Rey again.

Megatron was quickly cut off when Optimus and Wing Saber unleashed a furious storm of energon blasts in retaliation, which were soon followed by an equally powerful barrage from Rey and Springer. "When are you going to learn Megatron," Optimus asked in disbelief. "You'll never beat us because we never stand alone. When you face one of us, you face all of us."

"That's something that stands true not just for the Autobots, but for everyone who fights for the same reasons that they do," Rey quickly picked up. "So long as even one person is willing to stand up and fight for freedom, justice, and peace, others will be there to stand with that person. That's what makes us far stronger than you'll ever be!"

"Pathetic," Megatron scoffed in retort, and he quickly brought his sword back to slash his way through Optimus and Wing Saber before charging the Liberator once again. Rey was quick to evade Megatron's blade by using the Liberator's thrusters to blast his machine backwards, while Springer leapt into the air and assumed his helicopter mode to do the same. Rey then armed the Liberator with an arm blade and a double-bladed beam saber so that he was more than ready to clash with Megatron again when the Decepticon leader brought his sword down on Rey again, truly determined to do whatever was necessary to get what he desired from the blonde's Gundam.

At that point, Optimus was about to charge in again, when he found himself pausing in surprise for a moment as his chest suddenly started glowing. The next thing anyone knew, the windows on Optimus's chest suddenly opened up and allowed a beam of red energy to be released in the direction of the Liberator. Seeing the beam approaching his position caused Megatron to leap away from the Gundam, thinking that Optimus had released a powerful attack, but when the beam reached its target, it split off into four different beams that circled around the Liberator for a moment until they came back together again and steadily phased into the Gundam's chest. When the beams disappeared into Rey's machine, the blonde could not help but stare in both confusion and awe as the Liberator seemed to glow with a brilliant red light for a few minutes on both the inside and out, while one of his monitors showed him a display of what looked like his machine combining itself with Ironhide in a manner like what Hot Shot, Rodimus, and the other Autobots had done a minute ago. After studying this image for a few more minutes, Rey soon found that he could only smirk due to figuring out what he had to do now.

"Ironhide, let's powerlinx," Rey suddenly shouted after a few minutes.

"What? Powerlinx? Us," Ironhide gasped in surprise. "But I thought you said that…"

"I know, but just trust me," Rey reasoned.

Hearing how sure Rey was convinced Ironhide to finally nod in agreement with the young blonde before leaping into the air alongside the Liberator, just as he had done with Jetfire and Cliffjumper many times before, hoping that Rey did know what he was doing. A minute later, everyone saw that he did indeed know.

"Rey Za Burrel, Liberator…" the blonde cried out as his machine transformed into a torso like the others had before, much to Springer and the other Autobots' surprise.

"Ironhide," the Autobot local of this dimension continued as his head, shoulders, and arms folded back while his legs became longer and bigger.

"Powerlinx," the two then cried out together just before they connected at the mid-way point that separated the lower body from the upper body, allowing the two to become one in an instant. Half of the end result was the same as every time other time when Ironhide became the legs of a powerlinx Transformer, but it was the other half that had everyone's attention. The Liberator had seemed to convert its arms into an additional support for the disk on its back while the legs had retracted slightly to give it very muscular looking arms with strong hands. The points on the mobile suit that normally stored Rey's beam javelins when they were not in use were moved down to the lower point of the large arms, indicating that Rey could now use the beam weapons in a manner similar to wrist blades that some of the Autobots from his own dimension used. The disk that stored the DRAGOONs seemed to have been moved a little ways up its back so that it would not collide with the part of Ironhide's body that normally served as his head, while the top set of the bit weapons on the disk were extended out from their normal state, making them seem like they were being stored in the same way that the DRAGOONs were on the Legend Gundam.

"Powerlinx Liberator Gundam," Rey then shouted, drawing everyone's attention back to the situation at hand, and with but a simple flick of his machine's right arm, Rey was able to extend a beam javelin out like a wrist sword for battle before charging directly for Megatron at a speed that Rey had never exhibited in the Liberator before.

Megatron was quickly put on the defensive by Rey's sudden charge, and after that point, it was all the Decepticon leader could do to keep the newly fused Gundam and Autobot from dealing a critical blow to him. At one point, Megatron was sure that he had an opening to strike back, until he realized far too late that Rey had left that opening deliberately so that Springer could swoop down and land his own assault on Megatron with a storm of energon blasts and missiles. "Curse you Autobots," Megatron roared in anger.

"It's just like we said before Megatron, so long as we work as a team, the Autobots will never be defeated," Optimus immediately shouted in reply to Megatron's fury, and with that said, the Autobot leader then looked over to his red and blue teammate. "Wing Saber, it's our turn to combine."

"Yes sir," Wing Saber nodded, and with that said, the two leapt into the air to do just that.

"Optimus Prime…" Optimus shouted as he extended his arms outward while the windows on his chest opened once again.

"Wing Saber," the flyer continued before splitting himself into four different components.

"Powerlinx," the two then cried together, and not a minute after they had done so, the two components that had been Wing Saber's upper body changed into a large pair of arms, while the two, blue components only changed just enough to still be legs. Once the transformation of Wing Sabers four components had completed, the two large, red arms easily slid themselves into place over Optimus's smaller arms, while the blue components slid up over Optimus's legs. Once the components had locked into place, Optimus's helmet was covered by a larger one that was normally held behind his head, and the Autobot leader quickly gave his newly enhanced appendages a few quick moves to confirm that the combination was successful.

"Optimus Prime Powerlinx complete," Optimus then cried out when he confirmed that everything was as it should be, and the Autobot leader then charged in to join Springer and Rey in their assault on Megatron, with a stream of energon lasers already raining down from him and onto the Decepticon leader as he approached. Springer and Rey easily made sure they were out of Optimus's line of fire before the barrage hit, but after it did, neither of them held anything back as they fired everything they had on Megatron, making him cry out in pain before he growled out the two words he always hated saying to his forces.

"Decepticons, retreat," Megatron roared, and none of them were planning on arguing, because they noticed that the energon tower had started glowing red a little, and that could only have meant that the energon grid protecting Jungle Planet was about to come online again. Once the Decepticons had disappeared into their dark purple Space Bridge, Rey and the Autobots could not help but cheer happily at their victory today, proving that like always, the Autobots stood victorious over their old foes.

* * *

A few hours after everyone had calmed down from the excitement over the most recent victory against the Decepticons, everyone had gathered together again to discuss what had happened in the recent battle, but if they were really being honest with each other, there were really only two things that needed to be discussed, and both pertained to the visitors from the Cosmic Era. "How'd you know we would be able to powerlinx, Rey," Ironhide asked almost immediately after the meeting had been called to order.

"I don't know," Rey admitted. "One minute I was battling Megatron, and then suddenly my Gundam lit up with this crazy light. Really the only indication that it would work at all was the fact that one of the displays in my cockpit was showing me what would happen if the two of us did combine together. I can't really explain why that is."

"I think I can," Optimus revealed, drawing everyone's attention to the Autobot leader. "When you were fighting against Megatron, I think that my ability to grant others a Combination Spark could sense your courage and determination to not abandon your comrades, and awakened it to a new level so that it could bestow its power on you and your machine."

"Is that even possible," Cliffjumper asked. "I mean, I know we've never had it happen before because we don't have technology that's anything like Rey's Gundam, but could a Combination Spark really be granted to a human piloted mech like that?"

"It certainly seems like it is," Springer shrugged. "Plus, you have to remember that the Liberator Gundam is like a human-made Transformer, so who's to say that there's really that much of a difference now beyond the fact that it does not have its own self-awareness or intelligence?"

"Either way, that was still pretty impressive, Rey," Kicker admitted with a friendly smile as he lightly bumped his fist against Rey's arm as a show of how impressed he was. "I guess now you've got even more of an edge against the Decepticons for while you're here and when you get back home."

"I doubt it will really make that much of a difference," Rey admitted. "No one else will have this Combination Spark but me, so I doubt I will really be able to use it when Springer and I do get back."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Rodimus stated. "There was something different about that particular Combination Spark."

"Rodimus is right. In fact, the only time I had seen anything like that was when Primus granted me the power to bestow the Combination Spark on other Transformers," Optimus revealed.

"Maybe that means that you'll be able to give a Combination Spark to your friends after you get home," Misha told Rey in excitement, and Rey could not help but gain a small smile of excitement of his own as he thought about the possibilities that could unfold from combining his Gundam with some of the others, or even being able to combine his or the other Gundams with one of the Autobots from back home.

"That's great and all, but does someone want to tell me what that whole thing was even all about," Jetfire interrupted, causing all smiles to cease as they all remembered one little detail from the previous battle that had to be addressed.

"Jetfire has a point. Springer, you seemed pretty sure that the Decepticons were after yer little friend there, so would ya care to explain why that was," Bulkhead inquired.

"If what you guys told us about your universe is any indication, then it's not just a guess, it's a fact," Springer replied confidently. "I'm positive that the 'Cons came here hoping to get their hands on the Energon Reactor Core that powers Rey's Gundam."

"Why? What's the big deal with this Energon Reactor Core anyway," Hot Shot asked.

"The Energon Reactor Core is the most advanced piece of technology in terms of alternative energy sources back in our universe," Rey revealed. "It's used as the power source for all mobile suits these days, and at this point, no one really knows exactly how long it could keep a machine going, but the best guess projections say that its probably decades, and that's with just one, small energon shard. The biggest reason why it uses as little energon as possible is because the reactor is able to recycle the energon in it so that the need to resupply with fresh energon is almost nonexistent."

"And if the Decepticons got their hands on something like that, they would need to collect a lot less energon in order to restore Unicron," Misha gasped as she filled in the rest, causing everyone gasp in shock and horror as well.

"That's all the more reason why we've got to do everything we can to get Rey and Springer back home," Ironhide stated.

"Yeah, that's a given, ya big lug-head," Kicker snapped a friendly manner while giving his partner a light kick to the leg, though Ironhide did not seem to mind this one as much as the others he had already received that day.

"Ironhide and Kicker are right. We'll do everything we can to help you two find a way home to your universe," Optimus nodded to the two from the Cosmic Era. "Until then, it would probably be best if you both tried to avoid getting involved in our battles."

"You really think we're going to sit back and watch while you guys fight the Decepticons," Springer asked incredulously.

"He's right," Rey nodded in agreement. "Even if we are from another dimension, we're still part of the Autobot team, and that goes for your team just as much as it does for ours, so if we think we can help, we're not going to sit back and do nothing."

Everyone had to stare at the two for a minute, slightly shocked by how dedicated the two were in wanting to help them, until Optimus finally let out a small laugh as he said, "Looks like some Autobots are just too stubborn for their own good in other dimensions just like they are here. What am I gonna do with all of you?"

"Like you're really complaining that much," Jetfire joked in reply, and soon enough, everyone was laughing along with Optimus as well.

When the laughter finally died down, Springer could not help but quietly comment on how strange it was that Optimus was so much more open with his emotions in this universe than he was back in his and Rey's, which prompted another round of laughter from everyone who heard him. This was a fact that Rey was rather thankful for, as it helped to boost his spirits a little in the hopes that their friends back home would be able to find a way to reach them and get them home soon, and until then, they would be able to do what they could to defend everything they had been fighting for, just as these Autobots had been doing since the Decepticons' return in this universe.

* * *

 **Teletran I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID: ZGMF-CX777 Liberator Gundam**

 **Pilot: Commander Rey Za Burrel of the Z.A.F.T. Forces FAITH Unit, Gundam Team Member**

 **History: Successor machine to the ZGMF-X666 Legend Gundam.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: Thin blades that are similar in design to those of Optimus Prime's, yet also not quite as bulky.**

 **Arm Blasters: the default, long-range weaponry of the machine, these blasters are comparable in design to those of the late Cliffjumper.**

 **Alt Mode: A tank...What? Were you expecting a more elaborate description?**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS AND FEATURES:**

 **DRAGOON System: Like the Legend and the Providence before it, the Liberator Gundam utilizes a new version of the bit-type weaponry from the DRAGOON System, with the DRAGOONs now easier to control than ever. Unlike the previous models, where a number of large, pods that extended out of a large disk on the MS's back, the Liberator uses a smaller disk that almost unnoticeable from the front of the machine, while the DRAGOONs themselves are folded up into the disk until they are activated and deployed.**

 **Beam Javelins: Often confused to be beam sabers, these weapons often serve as alternative close-combat weapons to the Liberator's arm blades, and can be combined to form a double-bladed beam saber. These weapons are typically stored in the legs of the Liberator Gundam.**

 **Beam Shield Generator**

 **Combination Spark: Alternatively known as the Spark of Combination, this feature was granted to Rey's machine during his time in the alternate dimension he and Hound had traveled to. With it, Rey is able to combine the Liberator with other Transformers or Gundams that also possess a combination spark, though only if they match certain specifications. See Mission Report File of Rey Za Burrel designated** ** _Energon Extravaganza_ for further details. When utilizing this ability, the Liberator can become either the torso or the legs of a more powerful machine. It is also believed that the Combination Spark that the Liberator was granted is capable of granting others a Combination Spark as well, but such facts can only be confirmed at a time when both the machine and its pilot eventually return to their home dimension and attempt to pass along said function to an ally.**

 **Combination Spark-Created Torso Form: In this form, the arms of the Liberator are folded back to act as additional supports for the disk on its back, while the legs are transformed into a pair of large arms. The Beam Javelins that are stored in the legs are also converted into wrist-blade like weapons that can be deployed in a manner similar to that of a typical arm blade. Alternatively, the arms are also capable of forming large arm cannons similar to those of the Autobot Wrecker Bulkhead for long-range combat.**

 **Combination Spark-Created Leg Form: In this form, the Liberator's upper body is either retracted or folded in, while the disk holding the DRAGOONs on its back is split into two halves before sliding over to appear as though the halves are being held on the outside of the legs, which also extend slightly and gain an added amount of bulk to them. The cockpit is also slightly shifted to compensate for the unit that will connect as a torso for the combined machine, and allows the pilot to access and control the DRAGOON system and other features of both of the combined machines for the pilot of the torso unit.**

* * *

 ** _AN: Okay so, the whole adventure in another dimension was probably a little short for some of us, but I didn't want to really involve Rey and Springer too directly in the story of Transformers Energon like Athrun and Smokescreen had been for Transformers Armada, at least not beyond Rey getting a Combination Spark installed into the Liberator. Speaking of which, yeah, Rey's going to keep that, and it's going to lead to some of the other Gundams getting the ability to combine together as well. Be honest, how many of you have ever found yourselves wondering what would happen if you combined two of your favorite Gundams from Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny together? Yeah, you know you're excited to see what happens as a result of that._**

 ** _One other thing I want to mention is that when I was trying to figure out a good point for this chapter to take place, I hard a very hard time. I wanted it to be during a time before Megatron had become Galvatron, but at the same time, I wanted it to also be at a point where the Autobots are trying to stop Unicron's return, and not at the point where they are fighting him after he had been revived, and this was the best I could do. This is basically during the time between when Omega Supreme was brought into action in Transformers Energon and after the Energon Inferno had apparently sacrificed himself to help his comrades, if that helps you guys at all with figuring things out._**

 ** _Now, that little bit at the beginning there, where I showed you all what was going on back in the main dimension that this story takes place in, don't think that's the only time we'll see something like that going on, because there is going to be a lot going on back on the home-front for our heroes, and it won't always just be what you saw here, nor will it always be at the beginning of a chapter. Plus, this also showed how I intend to make sure the worlds and people that the Autobots and Gundam pilots encountered are not just cast aside after their last appearances in this story, including the cases of characters like Thundertron and the Star Seekers._**

 ** _Speaking of that little moment back in the main dimension of this story, I hope you all got that little reference I made to Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters. You know, that little moment when Predaking asked Bumblebee what a kilt is. Haha, that's funny._**

 ** _Bumblebee: It's not that funny._**

 ** _Predaking: I agree._**

 ** _AN: Says you guys. Also, I can already see you guys are starting to think about who Bumblebee was talking about when he sent Ratchet and Nicol off to get some really big reinforcements ready for action again, but before you ask, I'm gonna make it very clear right now, that I won't be telling anything for a couple of chapters at the very least._**

 ** _Yzak: As if they can't already guess? I mean, there's only two possibilities of who it could be since you've already eliminated the first possibility a few chapters back._**

 ** _AN: Yes, thank you for making that point Yzak, he said in clear sarcasm. Now, I'm pretty sure I've addressed everything I wanted to in regards to this chapter, so now I am happy to announce, that next chapter is once again going to be taking us to another part of the Gundam multiverse, and it will be to one of timelines that many Gundam fans like best. You wanna know what it is? Well do ya? Here's a hint...Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The Interdimensional Travelers Chronicles moves on from the time of Transformers Energon to the timeline of After Colony, as Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus meet with the perfect soldier, Heero Yuy and some of his allies. During his time here, Ultra Magnus will find himself learning many new things from the young boy, as the perfect Autobot soldier learns why being a soldier does not mean casting aside all emotions, but just how much can these young men really do for the two, or even their own universe? And what will it take for Waltfeld to really be able to make a difference for the Earth that is not his own? Is it possible that the future of this universe can be changed for the better? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 24: Paths of Soldiers** ** _. Gaia, be wary of that power that predicts the future!_**

 ** _Yeah, you heard me right. We going to the universe of Gundam Wing, baby! _**

**_[audience applause]_**

 ** _So that's all the more reason why I'll try not to keep everyone waiting for that chapter for too long, oh, and we're also getting that much closer to the special chapter that will wrap this arc up. If you've read the ending author's note from Chapter 4 of Destiny Sentinels, I'm sure you can guess which chapter I'm talking about. For now though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	24. Paths of Soldiers

_**AN: Hey guys! Got another one for you, and let me tell you, this one was not easy to write. I mean, considering where it takes place and all, I'm surprised I was able to get anything for it at all really, so please try to go easy on me this time around, and if I severely disappoint or enrage any of you Gundam Wing fans out there, my apologies in advance. I'll leave you all to it then...What're you still doing here? I said get a move on to the story...seriously, there's nothing else here, so go on and read the main thing.**_

 _ **Bumblebee: You do remember that you need to do a disclaimer first, right?**_

 _ **AN: Oh...yeah, that's what everyone's waiting for. I...I knew that.**_

 _ **Yzak: Sure you did. Just like we all know that Kira's going to eventually...**_

 _ **AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]**_

 _ **Yzak: [gets blasted in the head by a powerful sniper shot] OW! HEY, WHO DID THAT?! WHO DID THAT?! [gets blasted again by the same blast] AND THAT?! [gets blasted about half a dozen more times] SERIOUSLY, WHOEVER'S DOING THAT NEEDS TO CUT IT OUT RIGHT NOW, OR I'M GONNA...**_

 ** _?: Dual Blades skill...Starburst stream!_**

 ** _Yzak: [gets assaulted by a rapid flurry of sword attacks, courtesy of one Kirito the Black Swordsman before finally gets blasted from the room] YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS SOMEDAY LYOKOMARVELANIME!_**

 ** _AN: Keep telling yourself that, Yzak. Before I forget, thanks for that Kirito and Sinon._**

 ** _Kirito: No problem. We were happy to help out._**

 ** _Sinon: You mean you were._**

 ** _AN: Uh, is she mad at me or something?_**

 ** _Kirito: Honestly, you should be lucky she hasn't put a bullet in you seeing as you haven't done anything with a certain crossover with our series in over a year._**

 ** _AN: What're you...Oh...Oooooh...Oh shit. Has it really been that long since the last update for Gundam War Online? _**

**_Everyone other than AN: Yep._**

 ** _AN: [to himself] I'm gonna have to fix that. [full attention on audience again] Anyway, enjoy the show, and cue disclaimer!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 24: Paths of Soldiers**

 **Location: Wherever Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus Are**

It was honestly a surprise to Andrew Waltfeld the Desert Tiger that he had blacked out while he and his comrades were getting sucked through that anomaly to who-knew-where, but what came as even more of a surprise was that when he woke up again, he found that he and Ultra Magnus were both stranded in what was clearly a space colony. More to the point, it was neither a colony that was part of the PLANTs or any other nation, nor one that either of the two recognized. Seeing this was all the reason that the two needed to convert the Gaia into its desert jeep mode while Ultra Magnus assumed his own vehicle mode before they ventured out to discover more about their current location. In that time, they somehow managed to find a library with computers that the public could access, which allowed Waltfeld to run a search on anything he could find, only to discover something that he was not expecting.

Instead of finding anything relating to the Cosmic Era, Waltfeld found only references that referred to the current time period as After Colony, or AC for short, and not only that, but he also discovered that there was no mention of the Cybertronians, while the Gundams were considered to be weapons that were being used by terrorists, much to the Desert Tiger's shock. That shock quickly disappeared though as he started scanning through some more of the recent AC history, and the more he read, the more he felt like there were quite a few holes in the information, and being a seasoned soldier, Waltfeld was quickly able to figure out that what he was seeing was just what some government or military group wanted people to think as a cover story for a lot of things. Eventually, he came upon the most recent information, which pertained to a nation known as the Sanc Kingdom, it's eventual fall, the founding of the World Nation, and the most recent threat by a true terrorist organization known as White Fang, who claimed to be fighting for the colonies, and everything that he read about all of this led Waltfeld to think that wherever he and his Autobot companion were, the place was clearly in just as bad a state as their world was a few years ago if not in a worse one.

After re-reading all of this information a few more times, Waltfeld eventually shut down the computer he was using and returned to Ultra Magnus so that he could explain his findings to the Autobot SIC, hoping that Magnus may have an explanation as to why he was unable to find anything about the Autobots, the Sol Federation, or anything else involving the history that they knew. Magnus did indeed have an answer, but it was certainly not one that Waltfeld had expected. "Another dimension," Waltfeld asked incredulously.

"That seems to be the most likely case concerning our current location," Magnus reasoned. "And I'm afraid that there are not really any regulations that would pertain to this situation aside from the fact that we should avoid contact with the locals as much as possible and not reveal our true identities."

"Well if we are in another universe, then how are we supposed to get home without getting some kind of help," Waltfeld pointed out as he turned the Gaia's desert jeep onto another street with Magnus following shortly behind him, because he knew for a fact that neither he or Magnus were of much use when it came to certain scientific fields.

"It is likely safe to assume that our allies that were not pulled into the anomaly are working on a solution to that problem, that is if we were to go off the assumption that they have not deduced that we may be dead," Magnus reasoned.

"Yeah, I'd say that's probably a big 'if', Magnus, so we can't really wait around for a rescue if we want to get back, so unless you've suddenly become as smart as Ratchet or any of our other big-brain friends, we're going to need to get help" Waltfeld argued.

"I understand that, but regulations clearly state that making contact with locals of an alien world is ill-advised, and despite the fact that this is clearly an Earth-based space colony, they are still very much as alien to us as we would be to them," Magnus insisted, even though he knew that Waltfeld had a point.

"You know, considering we're in another dimension, I'm pretty sure our usual standard procedures don't really apply at the moment," Waltfeld reasoned, but before he could say anything else, he noticed something in the Gaia's rear-view cameras that was a bit out of place. After a minute or so, he noticed a man on a motorcycle that had been parked outside the library they were just at a few moments ago, and while some would assume that this was just someone who looked a lot like the person that he had only mildly noticed earlier, Waltfeld was able to tell that it was most likely the exact same person, which could only mean one thing. "Heads up, big guy; I think we're being followed."

"Is it possible that our cover was blown," Magnus asked as he shifted his voice into a clear mission-tone.

"Well considering a desert jeep on a space colony is not really that common and that you don't see a big-rig like yourself parked outside a library every day, I'd say there might be a chance. I guess it might've been a little too much to hope that someone would just wave it off as something that wasn't a big deal," Waltfeld pointed out as he moved his hands over the controls in his cockpit in preparation for what they were likely about to do next. "Let's see if we can't shake him without drawing too much attention to ourselves."

"Roger that," Ultra Magnus responded, and the two instantly picked up their speed as steadily as possible, while weaving through the typical space colony road traffic as best as they could in an attempt to throw their possible pursuer off.

Of course, that was easier said than done for two reasons, one being the obvious fact that Ultra Magnus's vehicle mode was not suited for easy navigation through traffic, seeing as it was a big-rig truck and all. The other reason however, was because every move that the two made, their pursuer seemed to follow as if it was second-hand nature to them. Every move they made to try and lose the guy was almost immediately countered as their pursuer managed to evade whatever obstacles they managed to put in his path, even when those obstacles were the other vehicles on the road. Eventually though, one thing became rather clear to both commanders: whoever this person was, he was clearly putting a lot more of his focus on Waltfeld than Magnus, and that quickly gave the Desert Tiger an idea that would hopefully allow at least one of them to get away easily enough.

"Let's split up at the next intersection," Waltfeld told Ultra Magnus. "If he really is as focused on me as he seems to be, then it will allow you to get away without attracting too much attention. We'll meet back up again once I've shaken him."

"Roger that," Ultra Magnus agreed, and the minute the two came to an intersection, they immediately split off in two different directions, with their pursuer following after Waltfeld, proving that they were right to assume that he was more interested in the Desert Tiger than the Autobot SIC.

Seeing this made Waltfeld smirk a little, as this whole chase was starting to remind him of his days fighting in the African deserts during the First Bloody Valentine War, only on a much more watered down scale, but he quickly shook himself out of the memories so he could focus more on the here and now. With that in mind, he quickly accelerated forward, which was a bit easier to do now since this road did not have as many civilians on the sidewalk or the sides of the road to see what he was doing, but unfortunately, it was also much more free of traffic, so that meant the person that was coming after him was able to keep up with him with less trouble than before. It was almost as though the guy had somehow known exactly what to do when he had to do it, and the way that he was maneuvering through traffic easily told Waltfeld that this person was either a highly trained soldier or a mobile suit pilot, because that would be the only way someone would be able to navigate this kind of pursuit so easily.

Finally, Waltfeld decided he had enough of this game of cat-and-mouse with the mystery man, and he quickly pulled the Gaia into a secluded area before bringing it to a halt and shutting it down. Once the Transformer Gundam was power down, he climbed out of the machine's desert jeep mode with his sidearm at the ready, and moved to the shadows so that he could gain an advantage in the way of positioning for when he finally saw whoever was after him. The strange thing was that he did not see his pursuer enter the abandoned building that he had entered once in at least half an hour, and considering how persistent this individual had been in following him that seemed a little odd to Waltfeld. After waiting and seeing no one for another few minutes, Waltfeld started to think that maybe he had finally lost the guy, until he suddenly felt the cold metal of a gun at his back, indicating that somehow, the individual had found a way to get behind him without him ever noticing.

"Put your weapon down and turn around slowly," a cool, yet calm and rather young voice ordered, and Waltfeld barely hesitated to do as he was asked, though he did not like the fact that he was giving up his Energon Pistol like this, considering that it was alien technology to this world. When he finally laid his eyes on the person who had been following him, he saw a young man with brown hair, rather cold blue eyes, and pale skin that was common for someone who grew up in a space colony dressed in black shorts, a sleeveless green shirt, and brown shoes.

"Why is it every mobile suit pilot I meet these days is someone who's so young," Waltfeld inquired aloud, drawing a curious glance from the boy who was still holding a gun on him, even after confiscating Waltfeld's pistol. "Kid, I've been a soldier for years and a mobile suit pilot for just as long, not to mention that I've been a commander for quite a long time as well. Do you really think I can't recognize the skills that only a fellow pilot could possess from even the simplest of things?"

"Just who are you," the young man demanded. "If you've been a soldier for as long as you claim to have been, and a commander at that, I'm fairly certain that I would have heard of you at least once."

"Somehow I doubt that," Waltfeld muttered with a shrug. He then faced the young man directly and said, "You know, my boy, where I come from, it's usually common courtesy to give your own name before asking someone else for theirs."

The boy seemed to bristle just a touch when Waltfeld referred to him as "my boy", but he had brushed it off as quickly as it had come and coolly replied, "Heero Yuy."

Waltfeld's eyebrow quirked in confusion when he heard that name, having seen it a few times when he was researching this universe at the library earlier and quickly said, "I came across that name once or twice earlier in some reading I was doing, and I was under the impression that a man by the name of Heero Yuy was dead."

"It was a name that was given to me by someone else so that I could have some form of basic identification among others," Heero revealed. "Now tell me who you are."

Waltfeld just gave an easy going smile and said, "I'm Commander Andrew Waltfeld, and let me spare you the trouble of looking me up by telling you right now, you won't likely find anything about me in any database."

This did not seem to cause any sort of reaction in Heero, as his face remained completely impassive, almost as though he was not affected by Waltfeld's words in the slightest. Instead, he simply went on to ask, "Why were you looking for information on the Gundams?"

Now that had Waltfeld's attention, while also leading him to suspect what Heero's reason for asking such a thing would be. Still, he figured that it would likely be better to answer as truthfully as possible by saying, "Some friends of mine pilot machines that are very similar to them, so I was curious and wanted to learn what I could about the machines, see if there was any chance of becoming allies with the pilots of those machines." Heero said nothing in response to that, but thanks to his years of training, Waltfeld was able to see that Heero was relaxing his guard just a little bit, which likely meant that he was winning him over, so he then went on to ask, "Why would you be curious about that anyway? Are you one of the pilots for those machines?"

That seemed to put Heero back on edge again, as he tightened his grip on the pistol that he was aiming at Waltfeld while simultaneously bringing Waltfeld's gun up a little to study it from the corner of his eye. "This doesn't look like any weapon that I recognize," Heero commented aloud, though Waltfeld was sure that the young man meant for him to hear that. "It seems much too advanced to be something that was made by OZ, so I can only assume that means it was somehow developed by White Fang or another party. Where did you get this and just what is it capable of?"

"Funny you should ask that, because to answer your question, I actually got that pistol from the same place that I got this," Waltfeld replied, and a second later, he had transformed his prosthetic arm into a blaster which he immediately aimed at Heero's head before the young man could even react. "Well now, looks like we've got a little stand-off, doesn't it," Waltfeld commented.

"So it would seem," Heero replied just as calmly as ever. That was when Waltfeld finally noticed a series of movements above them, which quickly lead him to one conclusion: Heero had not come alone.

"I'd get that freaky arm of yours away from my buddy now if you want to keep it, Mister," a young, yet rather playful voice suddenly commented.

Waltfeld's only reaction was to smile a little as he said, "So you snuck in some backup while I was unable to notice. Wish I had thought of that, or was even able to consider it." A second later though, a pair of really strong lights lit up the room, nearly blinding everyone in it, until they died down just enough to reveal Ultra Magnus's vehicle mode sitting in another entrance to the building as Waltfeld just added, "Oh wait. I am, and I did."

What Heero had failed to notice was that during the time Waltfeld had spent apparently powering down the Gaia and moving to another position, he had sent out a signal to Ultra Magnus telling the Autobot SIC his location and what he was going to try to do until Magnus could get there. Thankfully, Magnus had arrived just before Waltfeld had changed his Cybertronian prosthetic arm into its blaster mode. In addition to this, there was one other thing that Waltfeld had done while he was still in the Gaia, but before he fully implemented that action, he had to throw a sheepish smile towards Magnus in a silent apology. "Gaia, transform and activate sentry mode!"

An instant later, his mobile suit had changed into its Gundam mode and immediately armed both of its arm blasters, which it then pointed at two of the other people in the room, and during that time, Waltfeld could have sworn that Heero's expression had changed just a little to reflect his surprise at what had just happened while the other people in the room just gasped in shock. With the room now properly lit up and everyone's attention now focused on his Gundam, Waltfeld took the chance to glance around and get as much of a good look at the other people that were present as he could. He was easily able to figure out from the initial glance he threw around the room that all four of Heero's other friends were young men, but he still could not help but mentally shake his head a little at how young all of them seemed to be.

The first young man he noticed wore all black with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows to reveal the shirt was white on the inside, and had long hair that was tied into a braided ponytail. From Waltfeld could see of his stance and the expression on his face, it quickly became clear that this was the person who had earlier told him to move his "freaky arm away from his buddy". The second boy Waltfeld spotted seemed to be of Chinese descent and seemed to carry himself like a strong, proud warrior. This second boy was dressed in a sleeveless, blue shirt that was tucked into a pair of white pants being held up by a black belt. Moving on to the third assailant allowed Waltfeld to glimpse a young, blonde boy who, while dressed in a way that indicated he came from wealthy or at least well-off beginnings, clearly held a distaste for battle much like Kira had when Waltfeld had first met the young Coordinator in what now felt like a lifetime ago in more ways than one. The final boy held an even more neutral look than Heero did, which indicated that he likely had a great deal of emotional control, and Waltfeld could easily tell that the brown haired boy probably liked to keep some things simple based off of the fact that he was dressed in a simple, long-sleeved blue shirt and white pants.

After studying the newest additions to their surroundings, Heero finally brought his full attention back to Waltfeld and asked, "So what do you think happens now?"

Waltfeld's smile finally fell into a serious expression as he replied, "How about this: you and your friends stand down, and then I'll order both my machine and my friend over there to do the same before we all go somewhere else to talk about this little situation we've landed ourselves in, right after you give me back my gun."

Heero glanced to his four companions for a minute, giving Waltfeld the impression that they were sending some sort of silent signal to one another that only they could have understood, until he finally stowed his weapon away in his back pocket along with Waltfeld's gun as he said, "Fine, we'll talk, but I'm going to be keeping your gun until I'm certain that I can trust you, especially since it seems that you're not really unarmed without it."

Waltfeld did not need for Heero to gesture towards it to know that the boy was referring to his prosthetic arm, which was currently still in its blaster mode, but instead of getting upset with the kid, he simply shrugged it off and changed his arm back to normal with a smile as he said, "Fair enough."

"Hang on," the blonde boy called out. "Can we at least see who's inside the truck cab before we go anywhere?"

Waltfeld wanted to give them an answer right away, but found that he was not sure what to tell them. On the one hand, he wanted them to trust him and Ultra Magnus so having the Autobot SIC reveal himself seemed like a good idea as opposed to hiding the fact until the last minute, but on the other hand, he knew that Magnus would definitely not be okay with breaking regulations anymore than Waltfeld already had in the Autobot's opinion, plus, Waltfeld knew that the Gaia was just barely keeping itself inside the confides of the abandoned building they were in as it was, and Ultra Magnus was slightly bigger than his Gundam due in small part to his large shoulders, so if Magnus were to transform, they would risk him exposing himself to the entire colony. Seeing as one argument had stronger pull than the other, Waltfeld eventually said, "Sorry, but before he can show himself, we'd need to move to another location that has a bit more room to move and where there aren't too many prying eyes."

"Why? Are they afraid of something," the Chinese boy challenged.

"Actually, he just wants to avoid frightening any civilians, or alerting any military," Waltfeld explained.

"Fine then," Heero nodded before he cast a look to each of his allies, to which they each nodded in response before disappearing into different areas of the building. "Just follow me after you get outside again," Heero then told Waltfeld, and though his tone was still just as even and calm as usual, there was no denying the small threat that it held that was just daring the Desert Tiger to do otherwise.

Waltfeld just kept up his easy-going smile as he nodded and let Heero depart, before he commanded the Gaia to disengage its sentry mode so that he could board the mobile suit once again. Once he was inside, he quickly switched the Gaia to vehicle mode and started driving out of the building, with Ultra Magnus following right behind him, but not without a few words of his own. "What do you think you are doing, Commander Waltfeld," Magnus quietly hissed. Even though he was using a private comm. channel that only he and Waltfeld used, he still had to keep his voice down since their new friends would be able to hear him clearly now.

"Simple. I'm getting us a few possible friends that we could potentially trust to watch our backs while avoiding a serious situation, right after I had avoided getting my head shot off," Waltfeld easily replied.

"What we're doing is going against protocol that dictates contact with alien life forms is…"

"They're not alien life forms; they're human," Waltfeld immediately argued with his partner, making Magnus stop short in his small rant. "And besides, if I'm right, then these guys are probably the Gundam pilots of this dimension, and given that their machines are said to hold a great deal of power, I think we'd be better off if we were on their side, don't you?"

"On the side of terrorists, you mean," Ultra Magnus pointedly reminded.

"That's what an old, 'official' story said, and I never was one to take an official story like that without question. Besides, do you really think it could be possible for Gundams to be used for the purpose of terrorism, even in another universe," Waltfeld questioned.

Ultra Magnus found he had nothing to say in response to that, so he simply kept silent and drove on, following after Heero alongside Waltfeld. He did acknowledge that Waltfeld had a point in choosing what he had, but that did not mean that he would not be making a note of this whole thing in his report.

* * *

The place that Waltfeld and Magnus had been lead to ended up surprising them a little, as it turned out to be a large, white ship, and upon entering the ship, they were immediately greeted by the sight of five of this universe's Gundams. The most notable being one that was mostly white with a blue chest that had a green gem in the center, red shoulders, and large, white and blue wings. The winged Gundam also carried a large, red and white shield on its left arm, while a massive, twin-barrel rifle was held in its right hand. The second Gundam was mostly black and seemed to have a set of four bat-like wings on its back, while the weapons it carried were clearly a beam scythe and a large, rather bulky shield. The third Gundam was red and white with some hints of orange, and was likely meant for long-range combat if the large machine cannons on its left arm were any indication. The fourth Gundam was mostly white and black with some yellow detailing, and it carried a pair of large shotels on its back while what looked like a sub-machine gun was held in its right hand and a shield that looked similar to a snake's head was mounted on the left arm. Finally, the last Gundam was light blue and white, and had what looked like dragon claws on either arm. The fifth Gundam also had a red and yellow colored shield on its left shoulder, and from Waltfeld could remember it was also known to use a Twin Beam Trident.

After studying the various Gundams for another minute or so, Waltfeld finally climbed out of his machine and looked over to his and Ultra Magnus's hosts, who had now been joined by a man with a balding head of hair, a grey mustache, wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt, and a woman with short, black hair who was decked out in a very regal, blue uniform, and it did not even take a second to notice the expectant looks he was giving. Waltfeld did not seem to mind that much, as he just smirked and said, "So, mind if we get the names of our gracious hosts before we get any further? Not including Mister Yuy over here, that is."

After a minute or so, the boy in black stepped forward with a smirk of his own and gestured towards the black, bat-winged Gundam said, "My name's Duo Maxwell, the God of Death. I pilot the machine known as Gundam Deathscythe Hell."

The brown haired boy in simple clothing then came forward and followed his friend's lead by nodding to the red Gundam with machine cannons as he said, "Call me Trowa Barton, pilot of Gundam Heavyarms."

The blonde boy then stepped up and waved his hand towards the white and black Gundam as he gave a polite bow and politely said, "My name is Quatre Raberba Winner, sir, and I pilot Gundam Sandrock. Pleasure to meet you."

The apparently Chinese boy just gave a small nod to the blue and white Gundam with dragon claws on either arm before shortly saying, "Chang Wufei, pilot of Altron Gundam."

"So I guess that makes Mister Yuy over there the pilot of that last one, huh," Waltfeld guessed.

"Yes," Heero nodded. "I am the pilot of Wing Zero."

Waltfeld just nodded in response to the short reply before looking to the other two people and asking, "And you two are…?"

"Lucrezia Noin," the black haired woman replied with a simple smile and nod.

"And you can just call me Howard, the proud captain of this ship," the sunglasses wearing man revealed. "Who are you?"

"Well, like I told your friend there, I'm Commander Andrew Waltfeld of the Z.A.F.T. Forces, subdivision of the Sol Federation forces. I pilot the machine that's known as the Gaia Gundam," Waltfeld revealed.

"Wait, hold on a minute. What the hell is Z.A.F.T.," Duo asked.

"That's a long story, but the short version is that it's a military force in another universe," Waltfeld revealed in a tone that was more befitting of someone who was just telling people what the weather was.

That seemed to throw everyone for a loop, because a minute after Waltfeld had said that, everyone, including Trowa, Heero, and Wufei were looking at the Desert Tiger in wide-eyed shock or in a way that indicated they thought he had lost his mind, while the Desert Tiger could have sworn that he heard Ultra Magnus silently groan in response to his blurting out their origins. A minute later, Quatre finally broke the silence and asked, "It's not that we don't believe you Mister Waltfeld, but do you have any proof of this?"

"You mean aside from the fact that I pilot a Gundam that none of you have ever seen before, and that has abilities unlike anything you've likely ever seen," Waltfeld inquired. "Well you could also try and take a closer look at my gun that your buddy, Heero there took, but that would more than likely tell you that I'm an alien than it would tell you that I'm from another dimension."

"And why would it tell us something like that," Noin inquired.

"Well the simple answer is that it uses a substance that's not of Earth origin as ammunition, and said substance is actually the life-blood of a race of sentient machines from another planet," Waltfeld revealed.

"Okay, now I know you're crazy," Duo scoffed with a laugh. "There's no way that something like that could exist. The closest thing there is to sentient machines would have to be the Mobile Dolls that OZ had been developing and that White Fang now controls."

Waltfeld's easy-going smile immediately vanished when he heard that, as he had read up on the mobile dolls that Duo was talking about and thought that it would be a very grave insult to compare the Transformers to those soulless machines that people thought were better alternatives to sacrificing soldiers. Admittedly, he could certainly see the appeal to using such machines to save the lives of the troops, but beyond that, it just made him think that such things were really no better than the GENESIS weapons that had been used in Cosmic Era history, at least when they were used as weapons. Really, to use massive mobile suits to kill just took all sense of humanity out of any fighting, and that would only lead to needless destruction. Apparently, Waltfeld was not the only one who found the comparison between Transformers and mobile dolls to be insulting, because when he heard Duo's comment, Ultra Magnus could not stop himself from revving his engine a little in anger, drawing everyone's attention to the big-rig truck.

"What's with the driver of that truck," Trowa asked.

"What driver," Waltfeld asked in a small amount of hidden humor.

That ended up being the wrong thing to say, as it immediately caused Heero to raise his gun towards Waltfeld along with Wufei and Trowa as the pilot of Wing Zero practically snarled, "I guess this means your with Zechs and White Fang, and you managed to sneak some new type of mobile doll into our midst then."

This time, Heero was the one who had said the wrong thing, as that proved to be all that Waltfeld's Autobot partner needed to hear before he ended up giving in to his emotions and throwing all regulations out the window. An instant after Heero had spoken his accusation, Ultra Magnus immediately transformed into robot mode and stomped over to where the humans were standing so that he could slam his fist down into the deck as he snarled, "Insult my kind and I like that again, and you had best start praying to whatever gods you believe in that I do not consider ignoring protocols that prohibit violence against alien life forms or humans."

That immediately shut everyone up before Duo looked back to Waltfeld and asked, "Where did you say you were from?"

Waltfeld could not help but smirk a little at Ultra Magnus's intervention turning out to be just what they needed to prove he was being honest, and after waving for Magnus to stand down, Waltfeld began telling their tale to their hosts.

* * *

A few hours later, Waltfeld had fully explained his and Ultra Magnus's history and their current situation to their new hosts, and though some of them still held reservations about trusting the two, mostly in the cases of Heero and Wufei, the group of Gundam pilots and their allies were still more than happy to provide whatever assistance to the two that they could. The first thing that they needed to deal with though, was giving the two interdimensional travelers the unabridged version of After Colony history, something that Waltfeld was very thankful for, at least until after he heard said history, because once he had heard the After Colony Gundam Pilots' history, he could not help but feel that the scowl on his face was running the risk of becoming permanent. As it turned out, the Gundam Pilots were actually freedom fighters who were trying to win independence for the space colonies, which were being oppressed by the Earth and their military organization OZ. Eventually though, they were forced to just fight in order to survive as the colonies were forced to turn their backs on the Gundam pilots when OZ seized power over them, forcing them to retreat into a pacifist country known as the Sanc Kingdom, which was ruled over by Heero's friend Relena. When the Sanc Kingdom fell, Relena somehow worked her way into the main government and managed to change things for the better in the case of both Earth and the colonies by abolishing every inch of the corruption that had been in the Earth government. Sadly, it was all for naught, because Relena's brother, Milliardo Peacecraft, better known to the Gundam Pilots as Zechs Merquise, had announced to the world, that he, as leader of a terrorist group known as White Fang would destroy the Earth for the freedom of the colonies.

In all honesty, a great deal of the Gundam Pilots' story confused Waltfeld, and he was not entirely sure he understood what or even who they were really fighting for most of the time, but in the end, he just decided to settle on the fact that they were now fighting to save the Earth from White Fang and leave it at that. Once they had that settled, Waltfeld figured that until he and Ultra Magnus found a way home, they would do what they could to help the Gundam Pilots in their mission to stop White Fang and save both Earth and the colonies from being swept up into an unending state of fighting, for which the five pilots and their allies were very thankful, even though some of them did not really show it as well as the others. This was good news for both groups of course, but not everyone was able to enjoy it as much as the others.

When things had settled down, Ultra Magnus had moved off to the side where he was not in anyone's way so that he could mentally scold himself for his earlier conduct. Not only had he allowed his emotions to get the better of him, he had also directly broke the very protocol he had just been talking to Waltfeld about earlier by revealing himself to these people. He was supposed to be one of the best soldiers in the Autobots, always following protocol and regulations, and yet he had lost his cool so easily just because of something a few ignorant humans had said. Admittedly, he had been trying to be a bit more open-minded about how different things were in the various divisions of the Autobots and when it comes to how things were done now, but he was still able to keep his cool and stick to his training and old ways easily enough until now. As he thought about all that had been happening, Ultra Magnus could not help but wonder if he was really still cut out to be a soldier after all that had happened now.

His distress seemed to be rather apparent, as it eventually attracted the attention of Heero, which had led him to make his way over to Magnus out of a small sense of curiosity. "You look like you're really upset about something," Heero bluntly commented when he saw he had Magnus's attention.

Magnus was not really sure what to make of the young man. While he seemed to be rather unassuming, there was no mistaking that Heero definitely had an attitude that was suiting for many, well-seasoned soldiers despite how young he clearly was; much more so than some of the Autobots and Earth soldiers that he had met, at least. Of course, Magnus was a bit hesitant in addressing most humans, let alone the ones that he and Waltfeld were currently working with, but he figured that he may as well make an attempt at conversation with the young man, if for no other reason than to speak as one soldier to another. "Recently, I've found that my methods of conduct as both a commander and a soldier tends to disagree with many of my comrades," Magnus states. "I try to maintain order and abide by regulations and protocols, but it is rather difficult given how many of my comrades often act on their personal feelings. I will admit that often does lead to rather excellent results in the end, but I cannot help but wonder just how well our unit can continue to function effectively if we continue operating in such ways."

"There's nothing wrong with acting on your emotions. At least, that's what I've been told," Heero informed Magnus, grabbing the Autobot's attention almost instantly. "Many of my victories have been successful because of how I felt, but at the same time, one cannot allow their emotions to overwhelm them too much. There's no such thing as a perfect soldier, and in the end, we can only do our best to do what we feel is right in the moment."

Ultra Magnus seemed to need a little time to consider this, so Heero moved away to let the Autobot SIC do as such, until Magnus called out for him to wait a moment. "You say that you live life following your emotions, but I remember you telling us that this ZERO System that your Gundam uses causes you to lash out uncontrollably when you do so. How can you use it so effectively if it turns you into a mindless monster?"

Heero looked back to Ultra Magnus for a minute before he revealed, "I may be a soldier, but I am able to balance that mentality with the strength of my emotions, and that's how one can eventually learn to handle the ZERO System. Simply put, there's more than one way to be a perfect soldier."

Heero then continued on his way, leaving Ultra Magnus to consider what he had told him, and not knowing that the Autobot SIC had a small smile that was slowly growing as he started to understand a little more of what others had been trying to tell him for so long now.

* * *

Waltfeld just could not get over how much Quatre was like Kira, even as he continued to converse with him at the moment. Aside from their origins, the two boys were just so gentle and cared so much about others right to the point where one would never suspect either of the two of being mobile suit pilots, let alone pilots of Gundams. Even so, Waltfeld found it rather refreshing that there was something in this dimension that he found to be a little familiar. He would have been able to really enjoy the conversation he was currently having with the young man if he had not noticed something that immediately caused him to break it off.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing to my Gaia," Waltfeld demanded when he noticed Heero had just came out of the aforementioned Gundam with some tools.

"I just finished installing a modified version of the ZERO System into your machine," Heero calmly stated almost like it was no big deal.

Waltfeld on the other hand quickly saw a number of red flags with that idea. "As much as I would _love_ to be driven insane in the middle of a battle, I think we would all prefer that to not happen if it's all the same to you," Waltfeld argued.

"You'll be something of a disadvantage in battle since you'll be facing foes that you've never seen before, and this can help you deal with that," Heero argued.

"Are you sure about that, Heero," Quatre asked, clearly just as concerned about his friend's idea as Waltfeld was. "Each of us has experienced what the ZERO System can do, and some of us just barely managed to handle it. What makes you think that Mister Waltfeld can do any better with it?"

"Like I said, this is a modified version of the ZERO System, like the one I installed into the Sandrock, so it won't likely be as harsh as the actual system," Heero reasoned. He then looked to Waltfeld as he finished, "Besides, I just have a feeling that you'll be able to handle it."

Waltfeld wanted to argue further, but Quatre and the others knew full well that it was pointless to argue with Heero when he does things like this, so the blonde boy just waved a hand to Waltfeld as a way to persuade him to just let it go and walked away with Waltfeld following a minute after he warned Heero to not mess with his machine again without telling him first. Unfortunately, no one really got to do or say much more after that point, because it seemed like only minutes later that the ship's alarms suddenly sounded. _"A rogue OZ Unit has launched an attack on the group of colonies we were just at,"_ Noin's voice cried out over the intercom.

"Why would they go there," Duo asked.

"Probably for the same reason that we had," Trowa reasoned. "They probably picked up on that strange energy reading and figured it was something from an unknown weapon that would be used against them."

"I'm guessing that energy signature is how you guys ended up finding me and Magnus so quickly," Waltfeld guessed within reason, only getting a nod of confirmation from Quatre in response. "You know, for a group that's supposed to be shut down, I find it a little disturbing that OZ still has people that can pull off this kind of thing."

"Technically, OZ isn't shut down. It's just not the organization it once was, and some people have trouble accepting that," Wufei clarified.

"Either way, White Fang isn't going to let this slide," Duo pointed out.

"Then we'd better get over there on the double," Heero stated as he climbed into Wing Zero's cockpit, with his friends boarding their own machines only seconds later.

"Heero, you should probably hold back in case White Fang does show up," Quatre reasoned. "You'd stand the best chance against them if Zechs appears in the Epyon."

"Fine, but Trowa should probably stay put as well, given that his long-range fighting abilities would not likely do the colony any favors."

Everyone nodded in response to this and prepared to head out just as Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus stepped forward, the former having already climbed into the Gaia. "Where do you want us at?"

"You two should try and hold back for now," Heero replied. "You're likely going to be our temporary trump cards, so we can't afford to put anyone on alert by having a pair of unknowns suddenly showing up out of the blue."

"That plan seems sound," Ultra Magnus nodded in agreement, and with everyone's position decided on, the team immediately moved out to do their respective jobs, each determined to make sure that they succeed.

* * *

Quatre, Duo, and Wufei's approach to the colony was easy enough, mostly due to the fact that there was practically no resistance to them in their travels, but while Duo only felt more confident as they went, Quatre and Wufei both became more on edge. Even if this was a rogue faction, there was no way OZ would make things this easy for them, especially given how much experience the organization had when it came to dealing with the Gundam Pilots. Of course, Wufei just cast such things off as cowardice after a few moments, but Quatre's concern did not waver for even a second, and it only continued to grow when they finally reached the colony and found no sign of OZ anywhere inside or out. That was when everything fell into place, and Quatre quickly shouted in warning, "We need to get out of here! It's a trap!"

Unfortunately, Quatre's warning came too late, for an instant later the Virgo II mobile dolls of White Fang suddenly appeared and opened fire on the three Gundams from all sides, much to the three's surprise and slight irritation. "Where'd they even come from," Duo asked as he used the Deathscythe's wings and shield to defend himself.

"Don't know, but I know where they're going," Wufei replied as he pushed Altron into battle, its dragon claws instantly combining together for a large, dragon-like weapon that easily tore through most of their opponents.

Quatre and Duo would have joined in as well, but that was before the blonde of the two spotted something that had slipped the notice of his comrades. "There are still people in the area," Quatre shouted, causing the two to halt in their vicious assaults for a minute. "We can't be too reckless, or someone may get killed in the crossfire."

"Why haven't they evacuated," Duo asked until he saw a number of what were clearly White Fang forces surrounding the large group of colonists, clearly holding them hostage. "Never mind."

"Bunch of cowards," Wufei snarled. "They know they can't beat us in a fair fight so they're using hostages to force into pulling our punches."

"Either way, we can't take any chances," Quatre said as the Sandrock readied its curved blades for battle, while the other two did the same with their own close-combat weapons. "Heero, this whole thing is a trap that White Fang set up," Quatre tried to warn their friends outside, but the only thing he got in reply was static. "Heero? Trowa? Can either of you hear me?"

"They must be jamming our comms," Duo snarled.

 _"No, we can hear you just fine,"_ Trowa finally revealed a minute later, but there was no hiding the noise of explosions and gunfire in the background as he spoke. _"We just didn't answer because the warning was a little late, and we were a little busy ourselves at the time."_

That was not something that any of the three wanted to hear, because they knew that likely meant they would not be receiving any help from Heero or Trowa if they were already engaged in combat. Still, they resolved to do what they could until either one of the two outside could come and help or until one of them was able to break off and go help the other two, assuming they would last that long.

* * *

Waltfeld and Magnus had heard everything that had been said between the two teams, and from what they were seeing on the Gundam pilots' ship, they could easily say that they did not even need to be there to know how bad it was. While Quatre, Duo, and Wufei were doing their best to fight off the Virgo IIs that were inside the colony without harming the hostage civilians, Trowa's Heavyarms was throwing every variety of fire power it possessed at the Virgo IIs that were assaulting him and Heero outside said colony, while Heero seemed to be dealing out a one-man assault with Wing Zero's impressive combat abilities and fire power, but none of it seemed to be enough. Every time Trowa and Heero destroyed one mobile doll, another five seemed to take its place, and what made it worse was the fact that they did not seem to be moving like the mindless automatons that Waltfeld and Magnus had heard about, but instead, like they were being directly controlled by someone. This quickly reminded Waltfeld of when Quatre had told him that White Fang had used a modified ZERO System so that someone could control the mobile dolls, personally, making the machines fight more effectively against the pilots until he had activated the modified ZERO System that Heero had temporarily installed in the Sandrock, so he had good reason to believe that was the case here as well.

Of course, that left one thing unanswered. "Why would Zechs be doing this," Noin wondered aloud over the comm. on the bridge.

"My best guess is that he saw a chance to take out the group that stood as one of his strongest oppositions while simultaneously seizing whatever he thought the energy fluctuation from our arrival was for White Fang," Ultra Magnus reasoned. "Tactically it makes sense, but given that this is a group that claims to fight for the colonies, I cannot help but wonder why he would make the people who live in one of these colonies hostages."

"Even the best and most strategically skilled of commanders can make insane decisions when they feel like they're up against a wall, Magnus. If he was worried that our arrival was a sign of a new weapon being built, he would easily feel threatened enough to make such a decision. Plus, you have to remember that this is also the guy who has claimed he would destroy Earth for the liberation of space or whatever," Waltfeld reasoned.

"A promise that makes just as little sense to me," Magnus muttered aloud before he turned to move to the launch deck.

"Uh, what're you doing," Waltfeld asked his partner.

"I cannot stand by and do nothing while fellow soldiers are pinned down if there is a chance I can help. That is my duty as both a soldier and a commander," Ultra Magnus reasoned.

"I thought you said that protocol wouldn't let us do something like that," Waltfeld reminded his large, blue and red friend. "Wouldn't involving ourselves in their battle be interfering with this universe's order or something like that? And not only that, but I'm pretty sure we'd be going against the orders we were given if we jump in now."

Ultra Magnus would admit that at some other point in time, he would admit that Waltfeld was right and stand down at once, but after all that had happened to him in the recent months, combined with what he had been thinking about since his talk with Heero, Ultra Magnus found that he would prefer to make a different decision. "I believe our orders were to hold back and act as a trump card, which means that we would jump in at a moment when our allies would need assistance. This seems to be a moment that fits such a description. As for the other matter, I think that I will be taking a page out of Wheeljack's book and simply say this: To the pits with protocol."

Waltfeld could not stop the smirk that reached his face after he heard Magnus say that even if he wanted to, because he honestly found it amazing that the Autobot SIC would even consider saying such things in the first place. It was actually quite impressive, if he were being honest with himself, but he figured that he would tell Magnus such things later and elected to instead reveal, "In that case, I think it would be best if you help out the boys inside the colony while I backup Heero and Trowa. Just be careful when you use your blasters, not just because you'll be fighting inside a space colony, but also because we don't want you to run low on energon when there isn't any actual source of the stuff that could keep you going for a while."

"Understood," Ultra Magnus nodded, and he immediately transformed into vehicle mode so that he could have a more powerful start in his launch toward the colony that he needed to be inside of, never once knowing just what Waltfeld was thinking of doing when he reached the two who were battling unbelievable odds in space. Though it would be a little hard for Magnus to know anyways, seeing as he could not see inside Waltfeld's cockpit, and was thus unable to see how the Desert Tiger seemed to be staring at the start up controls for the ZERO System that Heero had installed into his machine.

* * *

Heero could easily say that he had worse days than the one he was currently having, and that was without considering that he had met a couple of guys who were not only from another dimension, but one of which was actually a giant, alien robot from another planet that may or may not even exist in his universe, but if he were being completely honest with himself, he would have to admit that today was certainly making its way into his top ten of worst days. Already he had used the Wing Zero's twin buster rifle a few times to either disperse or destroy a number of the attacking Virgo IIs, while letting Trowa take out the ones that had been lucky enough to evade his attacks, but even the Wing Zero was not able to take out every target on its own, even with Heavyarms backing it up, and that was the whole reason as to how some of these soulless machines were able to slip past the two and get into the colony. Of course, there was also the fact that someone was undoubtedly controlling these mobile dolls via a modified ZERO System, or more likely a modified EPYON System, and since Heero and Trowa were only human, it was clear that it was only going to be a matter of time before they finally became too exhausted to effectively fight back against the automatons that fought like mobile suits.

Thankfully, it eventually seemed like they would not have to worry about that for much longer, because just when a mobile doll seemed like it was about to get the drop on him, it was suddenly blasted apart by a quick and precise beam blast. Looking to the source, Heero could not help but gain a small smirk when he saw the Gaia barreling towards his position in mobile suit mode, firing both its arm blasters and beam assault cannons at any enemy in its way as it went, until it was floating right next to Wing Zero. "You probably shouldn't be out here so soon," Heero commented as he turned to fire Wing Zero's shoulder Vulcan guns.

"Maybe, but my partner and I felt that we needed to get out here and help as soon as possible," Waltfeld quipped as he fired a pair of blasts from the beam assault cannons. He then quickly fired a round from his arm blasters, taking out a pair of Virgo IIs and a couple of the Planet Defensors of another one's before he looked to Heero and asked, "You do know that they're fighting too well to be just mindless machines, right?"

"Yeah," Heero nodded in reply. "Someone's definitely using a ZERO System to control them."

"So why aren't you using yours," Waltfeld inquired as he whipped out one of the Gaia's beam sabers in order to slash apart a Virgo II that had lunged towards him in the hopes of catching him off guard.

"The ZERO System is always active when Wing Zero is operational," Heero revealed. "Every time the mobile suit is powered up, the system is activated, so it's not really optional for me whether or not I really use it. Just how much of its capabilities I use."

"Of course that's the case," Waltfeld muttered in a tone that clearly stated he was not amused.

"Where's Ultra Magnus," Trowa suddenly asked after he released a missile storm onto some Virgo IIs that got past the two who were in the thick of the swarm.

"I told him to head for the colony so that he can help out our boys inside. If anyone's got a chance of evening the odds in there, it would be an Autobot, especially one who was the previous commander of the Wreckers," Waltfeld said. He had a hunch that last bit would probably not reassure the two boys, but in all honesty, he really did not care at the moment, because what he was going to do in a moment would likely require a great deal of his attention. "Brace yourselves, kids. I'm using the ZERO System."

"Careful," Heero warned. "The original ZERO System is extremely taxing to use, and that's why it should only be used in combat or other life-or-death situations. It'll show you various outcomes for a battle, but it will be up to you to choose the outcome you want and then direct the system and your machine towards achieving it. If you're not careful though, the system will overwhelm your senses and give you a great deal of sensory overload that would be too much even for the best soldiers."

"Trust me, I don't want to use it anymore than I have to," Waltfeld reassured the young Gundam pilot, and with that said, he flipped the necessary controls to activate the modified ZERO System.

What happened next was certainly what Waltfeld would consider to be overwhelming, as he was quickly greeted with visions of various different scenarios, how they would end, and how to achieve those results, but it was not simply just for the current battle, because what Waltfeld saw also pertained to the future of his own universe. In a variety of different scenarios, he saw only good futures coming about, whether it be a scenario where everyone managed to survive and start building a better tomorrow, or someone on his side ended up sacrificing themselves to end the threat of Galvatron, Le Creuset, and Unicron for good, the most extreme instances being the sacrifice of all Transformers and their planet, or all of humanity and Earth. In a few instances where they won and both humans and Autobots survived though, Waltfeld saw a few different futures involving the descendants of everyone involved, one of which involved a group of Autobots and Decepticons, known as the Maximals and the Deathcons, being sent back through time to when the Cosmic Era first began, and later awakening when Junius Seven fell to Earth, leading to a secret war between the two groups. Sadly, none of the good things could compare to the bad scenarios that he saw, and each one of them horrified him to no extent.

In every scenario that saw the Autobots losing, Waltfeld saw nothing but death, destruction, and the absolute loss of hope and freedom throughout his home dimension, until eventually it began spreading to other universes as well, including this one. The only difference was in who had been responsible. In one instance, Unicron had revealed been the one to seize all of this power for himself, but only after sacrificing Galvatron and Le Creuset in the most brutal and horrific way that one could imagine, and right before the eyes of the Autobots and their human allies. Due to seeing this sight, the heroes of Waltfeld's universe had lost their will to fight on, clearly thinking that it was impossible to fight such a titan, and Unicron destroyed them with ease, leaving absolutely nothing of them in the aftermath. Another instance saw either Galvatron or Le Creuset betraying Unicron and their respective partner so that they could seize the Chaos Bringer's power all for themselves, ultimately leading them to become the supreme dominator, destroyer, or both of his entire universe. The most frightening scenario though, was one where all three were able to become all-powerful and then went on to destroy any form of resistance against them in one fell swoop, even the resistance that had not even formed yet. There were a few of these horrible scenarios where some heroes had survived somehow, forming rebel groups against whoever had become the dominant force of chaos and destruction, but it had mattered little in the end every time, and the enemy ended up winning regardless.

Seeing such things happening, even with the knowledge that none of them had happened yet was horrifying for Waltfeld, and he was beginning to lose his grip on what was real and what was just part of the illusions that the ZERO System was showing him, resulting in him crying out in horror before charging the Gaia forward as he lashed out in a blind, mad rampage that was befitting of a bestial creature. Heero and Trowa would have done something to help, but as things were, they were unable to do much without leaving themselves open for attack by the enemy, so it quickly began to seem as though Waltfeld was lost to the system. At least, until they suddenly received help from someone they had not been expecting to arrive so soon.

"Waltfeld, calm down," Ultra Magnus shouted as he and the other three Gundams raced onto the scene, destroying any mobile dolls that stood in their way as they did. After he had smashed a few last mobile dolls aside with the Forge of Solus Prime, Ultra Magnus managed to grab onto the Gaia from behind and held it there as its pilot tried to continue lashing out and shouted, "Focus Commander Waltfeld! You cannot let the system Heero Yuy installed into your machine overwhelm you! You have a strength that I envy, and that is what will allow you to stand strong against the overwhelming sensory data that ZERO System is feeding into you. You are the Desert Tiger, Andrew Waltfeld, and you have survived so much until now, so don't let this thing defeat you here!"

When he heard Ultra Magnus's words, Waltfeld began to calm down a little, and started to regain his focus to the point where he could make sense of everything that the ZERO System was feeding him more easily, until finally, he found it telling him exactly what he needed to hear. "Duo, cloak your machine and get around behind the largest group of the enemy units. Once your there, you'll need to wait for Heero's next shot with his rifle before you start attacking them from behind. Wufei, while he's doing that, you'll be hitting them from the front, giving an instant two-pronged attack. Trowa and Quatre, cover them with everything you've got while Heero, Magnus and I get into position."

"And what're you and Magnus even going to do," Duo asked as he caused his Gundam to disappear into the darkness of space.

"Magnus is going to be right on Wufei's tail, ready to bring down the hammer while I go right for the center of this whole thing after Heero has fired his shot," Waltfeld replied with a smirk, and he received no arguments from anyone after that point. What followed next was exactly what the ZERO System had told Waltfeld would happen, as the minute that Heero had fired his next shot from the twin buster rifle, the enemy had all ended up grouped together as one, massive force, making them easy pickings for the Deathscythe and Altron as they tore into them from either side. A volley of additional missiles, beam blasts, and gunfire from Heavyarms and Sandrock were able to make sure that no straggles got very far out of the group, while Ultra Magnus dealt a swift, ending blow by ramming the Forge into whatever mobile doll was foolish enough to end up in his path.

Just as the final group of mobile dolls were about to be destroyed, a red and black mobile armor suddenly swooped into the middle of the battlefield before it transformed to reveal a Gundam with a long, metallic whip and wings that made it seem almost like a devil in appearance. "Why is it, I always seem to meet you and your friends when I'm trying to bring about the future that Earth deserves, Heero," the voice of Milliardo Peacecraft inquired as he charged his Epyon Gundam towards Magnus.

Epyon's attack was easily intercepted by Wing Zero, and once Heero had forced his old foe back, the Gaia was quick to swoop in with its own mobile armor mode and land a powerful hit on the Epyon's leg with its wing-beam blade. The attack itself may not have done any significant damage to the Epyon, but it was just enough to trip it up long enough for the Gaia to return to mobile suit mode and open fire on it until the Wing Zero could swoop in and attack again with its beam saber. "Why did you do this, Zechs," Heero demanded as he clashed his Gundam's blade against the beam sword of the Epyon. "Why attack this colony like that?"

"They were obviously developing a weapon to help Earth bring me down, as you can plainly see by that blue and red mobile doll over there," Milliardo replied coolly as he pushed Heero back. He then prepared to lash out with Epyon's heat rod, when the whipping weapon was suddenly caught in the firm grasp of a very angry Ultra Magnus.

"Do not. Ever. Call me. A mobile doll," Ultra Magnus growled, and he then pulled back on the heat rod as hard as he could, pulling the Epyon toward him until it was close enough for Magnus to slam the Forge of Solus Prime into the dark colored Gundam as hard as he could. Ultra Magnus did not let it stop there, as he continued to hammer away at Epyon with all of his and the Forge's massive might, until finally, the Gaia and Wing Zero swooped in once again to land a pair of powerful blows into Milliardo's machine, knocking the leader of White Fang off kilter completely.

When he finally managed to regain control of his machine, Milliardo just looked on at the forces that were gathered before him, studying them and his situation, until he finally just nodded in acceptance of his now inevitable defeat and turned Epyon back into its mobile armor mode so that he could retreat, knowing that he still had bigger plans in the works that had yet to be unleashed.

* * *

Some time after White Fang and its leader had retreated, the five Gundam pilots and their friends from another dimension had returned to the ship they were using as a mobile base so that they could repair and resupply for the battles that were still to come, and while his friends were doing that, Heero took the chance to move over to where Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus were currently talking while the Desert Tiger was making a few adjustments to his own Gundam. "Would I be wrong to guess that you'll be removing the ZERO System from your machine," Heero inquired of Waltfeld once he had reached both him and Magnus.

Waltfeld seemed to consider this question for a minute before he finally replied, "Nah, I think I'll hold onto it. It might take some practice, but I have a feeling that it's going to be a big advantage for when we get home. Besides, I'd like to make sure that some of the better things I saw in those visions the system showed me come about, and I get the feeling that it might be more likely to happen if I kept that thing in the Gaia."

Heero had to smile a little at this, as he had actually been hoping that Waltfeld would decide to keep the modified ZERO System that he had installed into the orange and gold Gundam, and then warned, "Just try not to use it too much. You won't be any good to any of your allies if the system drives you insane."

"I'll keep that in mind," Waltfeld nodded in thanks. His face then went from his usual, laid-back smile to completely serious as he said, "But don't think that just because I'll be keeping your modified miracle system, you'll get to keep my gun. Now for the last time, give me back my damn energon pistol."

Heero could not help smirking a little more broadly as he pulled out the aforementioned weapon and handed it over as he commented in a rare moment of jest for him, "I was hoping you would've forgotten about that by now, actually. I would've liked to see what it could really do, first-hand."

"Wait, did I just hear Heero Yuy tell a joke," Duo asked from where he was working on Deathscythe.

Heero's face immediately returned to its usual serious expression as he replied, "No, you didn't."

"Okay, now I know that you're just trying to mess with me," Duo grumbled before turning back to his work, eliciting a few laughs from his other fellow pilots as he did.

Heero then turned to Ultra Magnus and said, "I suppose you learned something today."

"I suppose I have, and I have you to thank for part of that," Magnus nodded in response. "Thank you for helping me fully realize that orders and regulations can't always be relied upon in order to achieve an objective, and that sometimes it is better to let one's feelings guide their actions."

Heero simply nodded in reply to this and then headed off to finish his work on Wing Zero, knowing that the two were watching his retreating form as he did. As he watched Heero go though, Waltfeld's face ended up falling a little as he recalled the horrific images of some of the possible futures that the ZERO System had shown him during the last battle. He knew now more than ever, that he and Ultra Magnus had to find a way back home soon if they wanted to stop their enemies' plans, but there was one other thing in particular that the ZERO System had shown him that he could not ignore at all. The simple fact that it was now far too late to stop Unicron's resurrection.

* * *

 **Location: Somewhere in the Darkest Reaches of the Main Galaxy**

Though barely any light normally reached this part of space, whether it be from the closest sun or that of the faintest of stars, this area of space was now easily lit up much brighter than normal due in no small part to the lights of the Dark Energon that coursed through Galvatron and Le Creuset's veins, and the various workings of the Advocate Gundam. As the two approached the massive, dark mass that made up this corner of space, they could not help but grin as evilly and darkly as anyone ever could, including them, for they were now in the presence of the very thing that they had hoped to find when they encountered the Autobots at the Maelstrom Belt. Lying before them, was the vast, ruined, empty shell of Unicron the Chaos Bringer, but that shell would not remain that way for much longer.

"At last, we have found it, and the next phase of our master's plan is complete," Galvatron hissed in excitement as the Dark Energon in his spark pulsed even more brightly than ever before.

"And now, all we need to do is direct his mightiness here, so that he may finally be rejoined with his physical form and restored to his full power," Le Creuset snickered in equal glee. A moment later, the two mad beings glowed even more brightly than before as they summoned every last ounce of the powers of Dark Energon within them forth, turning themselves into living beacons for the dark essence of the Chaos Bringer, and they did not have to wait very long for their lord and master's response after they did.

Almost an instant later, the Chaos Bringer's dark essence, which had been expelled from the Earth, raced forth from the surrounding darkness before it struck a large area of the empty shell that was more than likely his chest. As soon as the energy had struck that area, the whole area lit up with the dreaded, evil colors of Dark Energon and the being that it originated from while the shell suddenly began to reform. First came a massive arm, then a leg, and then the opposite appendages, followed by a variety of horns and spikes, until at long last, a pair of demonic, red eyes flashed to life through the black and purple haze that surrounded that area of space as a deep, equally demonic voice cried out so loudly, that one would think that it had rang out throughout the entire cosmos, for the words that voice said, no matter how few or simple they were, had certainly sent a shiver of fear through every being in the known universe when the words had been spoken. **"I…LIVE AGAIN!"**

* * *

 **Teletraan I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID: ZGMF-CX88S Gaia Gundam**

 **Pilot: Commander Andrew Waltfeld of the Z.A.F.T. Forces FAITH Unit, Gundam Team Member**

 **History:** **Successor machine to the ZGMF-X88S Gaia Gundam**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: Not normally used, but still present as default melee weapons like in all Transformer Gundams. Design is similar to those of the Liberator Gundam's.**

 **Arm Blasters: Default, long-range weaponry of the machine, these blasters are similar to those of the Autobot Smokescreen**

 **Alt Mode: Desert Jeep**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS AND FEATURES:**

 **Beam Shield Generator: A new feature that was added into the machine's old mobile shield, increasing the defensive capabilities of the unit.**

 **Mobile Shield**

 **"Vajra" Beam Saber**

 **Beam Assault Cannons**

 **"Griffon 2" Beam Blades**

 **Modified ZERO System: A modified version of the ZERO System used in the unit known as Wing Gundam Zero, or simply Wing Zero, this allows the pilot to be able to visualize various different outcomes of the battle they are currently in, or other life-threatening situations when fully activated. Has shown that prolonged use can cause various hallucinations while also exposing the pilot to the sight of other various different outcomes and possibilities for the future, while also overloading the pilot's sense until they are temporarily driven to the point of insanity. For more information, see file designation: ZERO System.**

* * *

 ** _AN: Okay so, part of the reason why this was so hard to write was because I wanted to make it at a moment in the series where Heero had Wing Zero and all the pilots from the AC timeline were all together, and if you know the Gundam Wing series, you know that didn't really leave me with many options. Also, yeah, I gave Milliardo a serious beat down, mostly to show how much I think he made such a stupid decision when he decided to have White Fang destroy Earth._**

 ** _Waltfeld: You're summary of events for the AC Colony doesn't seem to be as well done as the others if you ask me._**

 ** _AN: Well, part of that is because I found that the Gundam pilots' focus was a bit hard to keep track of at some points. One minute they're trying to fight for the colonies and to destroy OZ, the next moment they're trying to fight to survive while destroying OZ, then they're just trying to hide while surviving, then they're doing who knows what? But that's just me._**

 ** _Magnus: Why give Waltfeld a copy of the ZERO System._**

 ** _AN: Well I figured that if anyone from the Cosmic Era could handle that thing, it would be its infamous Desert Tiger, but beyond that, it just seemed like the natural thing to do since everyone else that's been thrown into other dimensions is getting some form of power-up from their time there. Really aside from a serious upgrade that would've been gotten rid of later after he got home, giving the Gaia the ZERO System was the only thing I could do._**

 ** _On another note, I hope I did the whole hallucinations and visions of the future thing from when Waltfeld used the ZERO System okay, and for those of you who don't know, I actually threw in a little reference to a story that I'm helping another author with that is actually his own little spin-off of this series. It's called Secret Wars: Gundam SEED Prime, written by "UltimateGundamFighter". I highly recommend you all check it out. It may not be very far along at the moment, but it is still a really good story._**

 ** _Well, I think that's everything, because I doubt you all want me to remind you of the fact that Galvatron and Le Creuset have now successfully restored Unicron's energy form to his body, so I think I'll just focus on the positive stuff by telling you that we're heading back into Transformers territory with the next dimension, as if you all didn't already know by now, and this time, it's Lunamaria and Crosshairs's turn for some action. See for yourselves once I say Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The struggles of one's home become easily lost when they find themselves so far from it, yet Lunamaria and Crosshairs find that some of their own struggles from the past are coming back to them. After an encounter with an alternate version of the Decepticons, they find themselves facing the familiar visage of an old enemy who is not as they know him to be. Is it really possible to trust someone they had been betrayed by once before, even if it is not the same version of the person that they know so well? Such a question causes Luna to wonder just how much she truly is worth as a warrior for peace, but in the end, the answer will lead her to finally discovering the answer to a question she had been wondering for so long. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 25: Key to Victory** ** _. Unlock the power you hold within at long last, Pure Impulse!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	25. Key to Victory

_**AN: Hey everyone, it's lyokoMARVELanime, with more action and excitement from Gundam SEED Prime Chaos Hunters, and if you liked the previous two chapters that dived into an adventure in the Unicron trilogy, then get ready for an adventure that goes into the final member of said trilogy, which will also reveal the long-awaited answer to the secret behind the mystery system in Luna's Pure Impulse Gundam!**_

 _ **Shinn: It's not really that big of a revelation when you really think about it though, and that's without you saying all that.**_

 _ **AN: Way to be a buzzkill on that, Shinn.**_

 _ **[audience boos]**_

 _ **Lunamaria: Well, I'm excited, because I finally get my own solo adventure in this story! I mean, sure Crosshairs is in this too, but this is probably the first time I've had a really major part in this story that focused a lot on me, let alone an entire chapter! Come on, hurry up and start already! I'm sure how much longer I can wait! [starts bouncing around like an excited child on Christmas day]**_

 _ **AN: Okay, so, before Lunamaria goes completely nuts with waiting, let's roll out to the chapter!...right after we indulge in a little intro that's similar to the one we all saw in the series that this chapter takes place in.**_

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Optimus: Our worlds are in danger...**

 **Kira: Now to save them, and the universe, we must brave the challenges of the various alternate dimensions we've been thrown into...**

 **Optimus: Before the Decepticons can unleash the full furry of Unicron and destroy us all.**

 **Together: It is our mission.**

 **O: Smokescreen...**

 **K: Athrun Zala...**

 **Bulkhead...**

 **Shinn Asuka...**

 **Springer...**

 **Rey Za Burrel...**

 **Ultra Magnus...**

 **Andrew Waltfeld...**

 **Crosshairs...**

 **Lunamaria Hawke...**

 **Arcee...**

 **Cagalli Yula Athha Zala...**

 **Wheeljack...**

 **Mu La Flaga...**

 **Optimus Prime!**

 **Kira Yamato!**

 **O: Transform...**

 **K: Burst on...**

 **Together: And roll out!**

* * *

 **Chapter 25: Key to Victory**

 **Location: Wherever Lunamaria and Crosshairs are**

If she were being honest with herself, the fact that she was likely on another planet that was probably light-years away from Earth did not really surprise Lunamaria. She had been to Cybertron, Junkion, and Quintessa now, after all. In fact, the fact that neither she or Crosshairs could establish a connection to a Teletran One station, while a bit worrying, did not really surprise her either. No, the thing that was really surprising to the violet-red haired girl was the city that they were currently in, because to say that the metropolis was massive would be putting it very mildly. Everywhere Lunamaria and Crosshairs looked, they saw skyscrapers and towers that not only reached higher into the sky than any building either of them had ever seen before, but when they stood next to the buildings, they could see that the entire structure was massive enough to be fit for a Transformer type of giant. It did not stop at the buildings though, because everything from the walkways, to the roads, and even the small parks and construction sites were just as massive, and the construction vehicles that they saw were equally as big as you would expect such vehicles to be for such a massive city.

Looking around at all this from the cockpit of the Pure Impulse, Lunamaria found that she could really only say one thing to her Autobot Guardian and partner. "Like I didn't already feel short standing next to you guys when I'm not in a mobile suit."

"If it makes you feel any better, I feel short every time I stand next to Optimus," Crosshairs replied.

"Considering that's Optimus Prime you're talking about, and that you can't help but feel a bit short standing next to him on principle, Transformer or otherwise, no, that doesn't make me feel any better."

Crosshairs merely shrugged in response to this before he put his focus back on the massive highway that he was currently racing on, hoping that they would not run across any locals while they were cruising along, because he was certain that if the cities on this planet were as big as they were, then that would mean that the locals were equally as big, which would mean he would have to do everything he could to make sure that he did not get run over by a giant car or anything of the like. After another minute of silence though, Crosshairs' very disturbing imaginings of being flattened by a giant-sized version of Arcee's vehicle mode were interrupted when Lunamaria suddenly asked, "So do you think this is another one of the lost Transformer Colony Worlds?"

"I don't think so," Crosshairs shrugged. "Every world we went to had some variety of a Teletran One terminal, and that made it all the more easier to establish a link to the other terminals that we normally use, so the fact that there doesn't seem to be one here could mean that it's not a Cybertron colony planet. What makes you think that is the case though?"

"Well who else could build cities like this other than a group of Transformers," Lunamaria pointed out as she gestured at their surroundings with one hand, not that Crosshairs could see said gesture, but she still felt like it was needed.

"Okay, I'll give you that," Crosshairs admitted. "But maybe the locals aren't Transformers. I mean, sure, the Ancients did travel a lot of space and colonize several different worlds for years, but that doesn't mean that most life in the universe is either humans or Transformers. There are other forms of life out there too."

"Do you know that for certain, or is that just a belief," Lunamaria asked, knowing that it could really be either way when it came to Transformers saying things like that.

"It's a belief, and I think it's just as easily reinforced by the fact that we've encountered a variety of humans and Transformers, so if our two races are so diverse, who's to say that can't be applied to life in general."

Lunamaria had to admit that Crosshairs had a point, even though she was a bit shocked to hear such a philosophical point from a Wrecker like him, or really any Wrecker in general, but before the two could discuss the point any further, they were quickly distracted by the sounds of explosions ringing out nearby. Thinking that they really had no other lead to follow at the moment when it came to finding anyone on this world, the two immediately started heading in the direction of the explosion, hoping against hope that for once it was not a sign of a battle going on. That hope was quickly dashed when they reached the origin point of the explosion, and it was just as quickly discovered that this world was populated by Transformers. Of course, if the group of Transformers before them was any indication, it seemed that this world was made up of quite a variety of different Transformers and not just of the giant variety.

To be honest, they only saw three giant-sized Transformers, and if the sigils that they were each wearing was any indication, it looked like only two of them were aligned with the Autobots, a fact that actually came as a surprise to the two, seeing as they both thought that all the Autobots had either returned to Cybertron or gone to try living life on Earth. The others were a bit more diverse, with some looking like they were built for speed, others for combat, and others still like they took on a bestial form like the Predacons or Leobreaker and his people. This was all something of a side-note for the two friends, as they had taken more notice of the fact that leader of the other group, who each wore the sigils of the Decepticons, was clearly beating down on the supposed Autobots, and he was easily doing so all by himself.

The lead Decepticon in question was rather big, at least when compared to an average sized Transformer, and had armor that was mostly white, with black adorning half of his legs and all of his arms. A pair of black horns was situated in the center of his forehead, just above a dark, purple face that was made a bit more menacing looking whenever he smirked and his dark red optics narrowed. The white and black Decepticon only became even more menacing when a bestial Transformer that looked like a silver and black, evil version of Leobreaker suddenly changed into a large arm and combined together with his leader, replacing the white and black Transformer's regular left arm once he had. The minute that the evil version of Leobreaker had combined together with his leader, said leader had immediately lunged towards the group of Autobots, who were barely able to stand at this point, and started laying into them with a terrible power and might that Crosshairs and Lunamaria had only seen Galvatron display.

At that point, Crosshairs decided that he had seen enough, and he immediately revved up his engine before racing off the road he was currently on and transforming in midair. When the Decepticon leader heard Crosshairs' engine roaring, he had immediately turned towards the green paratrooper Wrecker just in time to see Crosshairs pull out his guns and start shelling while his parachutes deployed at the last second, making sure he had an easy descent to the ground while the Decepticon recovered from his surprise assault. Once Crosshairs had retracted his parachutes, he looked towards the Decepticon he had fired on, thinking that he had managed to deal some significant damage with his surprise attack, only to end up becoming very worried when he saw that he had not even scratched the other guy's armor.

"Amusing effort, but if you truly wish to test your might against Galvatron, I'll be happy to oblige you, foolish little Autobot," the Decepticon boasted, and Crosshairs was quickly caught off-guard due to the fact that he had easily become confused at hearing this Decepticon refer to himself as Galvatron.

The end result of Crosshairs' moment of distraction was being dealt a hard blow from the bestial arm that the 'Con who claimed to be Galvatron had combined with, and that hit had hurt like hell to Crosshairs. Thankfully, like any good Wrecker, Crosshairs was not one to go down without a fight, and he quickly spun himself around so that he could attempt to fire on the Galvatron-wannabe at point-blank range. The tactic had cause Galvatron to step back a little more due to the shock of its suddenness than anything else, and that provided Crosshairs all the chance he needed to get back on his feet in time to notice that the other Transformers in the area had now rejoined the fight, though only the red and blue Autobot with large, white wings and gold chest armor, and the white, black, and grey giant ended up charging towards the fight he was in the middle of.

Thankfully, Crosshairs did not have to worry about a lack of backup for long, as proven by the sudden shower of energon beam blasts that came from above when the Pure Impulse descended onto the battlefield in its jet mode. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size, you cheap, wannabe, knockoff," Lunamaria shouted at the Decepticon her partner had attacked as she continued firing.

"You dare," the Decepticon roared in anger before thrusting his massive arm towards her and unleashing a stream of lightning that Crosshairs and Lunamaria could only compare to the lightning blasts that Unicron's vessels had used against Optimus and Kira when he first started to reawaken from within Earth.

Reacting out of instinct, Lunamaria quickly hit the control that was normally used to separate the various different versions of the Impulse into its four components, and a second later, the lightning raced past the Pure Impulse's previous location as it separated into four different fighter jets. The Core Wonder that acted as the Pure Impulse's cockpit was already a fighter jet on its own, but unlike the Core Splendor of the original Impulse, the Core Wonder had an additional pair of wings that folded into the main, back wings when it converted into docking mode, and the fighter itself was colored violet-red and blue. What normally served as the Pure Impulse's leg flyer, was now a small, sleek UAV jet that was similar to Soundwave's vehicle mode, while the chest flyer assumed the form of a military jet. Finally, the silhouette flyer took on the form of a small transport plane, with the sword handles acting as small extensions of its main wings, and the beam cannons providing what appeared to be rocket engines under the main wings, mounted on either side of the jet.

Seeing the Pure Impulse do this for the first time was actually a bit surprising for Crosshairs, as Lunamaria had always had her Gundam combined together in its full form, with the only exception being when she had it aboard a ship like the _Minerva_ , be it in Gundam mode or vehicle mode, so seeing it separate into these four different vehicles while it was in vehicle mode for the first time was naturally a shock. It proved to be just as much of one to the Decepticon they were fighting, and that was something that Lunamaria was able to capitalize on by having the four, small jets each launch their own brief barrage of attacks on said 'Con from all sides. After completely throwing the 'Con off balance, the jets then came together as the Pure Impulse's normal vehicle mode once again, with the legs forming the front of the jet, the chest becoming the back end, and the silhouette latching on from the top as the main wings, all the while, the Core Wonder was situated right in the center of the three.

Once the four jets had formed together again, Lunamaria immediately transformed the Pure Impulse into Gundam mode and whipped out her machine's Anti-Ship Swords so that she could directly engage the Decepticon in close-combat. Her initial strike was carried out by striking the 'Con with both swords in their separate form, and after knocking him back with a hard kick, Lunamaria quickly combined the two blades together for a double-bladed sword and spun the combined weapon over the Pure Impulse's head before bringing it down into a ready position for battle, much like she and Shinn had both done with the original Impulse's swords from its Sword Silhouette. When the smoke cleared from her attack though, she was shocked to find that the Decepticon was not even hurt, but instead, was just laughing like he had not just been attacked.

"Very cute," the 'Con revealed. That immediately got Lunamaria's blood boiling, and she immediately charged in again, determined to cut this 'Con down to size with her machine's sword, only for the Decepticon to easily dodge her attack with a speed she had never seen before, and then kick the Pure Impulse in the back, causing it to lose its grip on its sword.

Lunamaria was, of course, rattled when her machine hit the ground, but she was able to quickly shake it off and make the Pure Impulse roll over onto its back so that it could bring up its Beam Cannons to fire. The minute her weapons were ready for action, she unleashed everything that they had on the 'Con, immediately leading a powerful blast of energy to collide with the Decepticon. Lunamaria had to smirk when she saw that her attack had successfully hit, but that look ended up being washed away in an instant when she heard the Decepticon's laughing at her once again before emerging from the smoke while saying one simple sentence in mocking of her attack. "That actually tickled a little."

"Well let's see how hysterical you find this, ya stinkin' 'Con," Crosshairs shouted before he fired his pistols at the Decepticon who claimed to be Galvatron in a ferocious barrage. Crosshairs knew that it this point, his usual attacks would not really do that much damage, but to be honest, he was not really trying to hurt the 'Con so much as he was trying to give Lunamaria a chance to move out of the way.

Lunamaria did move, but it was not away from the Decepticon. Instead, she simply armed her Gundam's arm blades and started trying to slug it out by slashing at the Decepticon's front like she had seen Arcee do many times in the past. This action, while brave, was not one of the violet-redhead's brightest ideas, as it quickly led her to being knocked aside once again, but this time, by a hard backhand from the Decepticon's massive, beast arm. Hearing Lunamaria cry out in pain seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back for the two mystery Autobots that had been looking for any chance to get into the fight that they could get, and they immediately charged in, with the giant one swinging around a massive, multi-purpose axe into the offending 'Con, while the red and blue one with silver wings just rushed forward with a pair of swords in hand.

"Galvatron, I won't let you win this battle, no matter what," the red and blue Autobot shouted after he had slashed at the Decepticon a few times before flying a short distance away. The next thing that either Lunamaria or Crosshairs knew, the Autobot that had just rushed in to help save Lunamaria was suddenly glowing bright red, almost like he had been lit on fire or something, until the energy around him suddenly shot into the sky, as he shouted, "Cyber Key Power!"

What happened next, neither Lunamaria or Crosshairs could really say for certain, aside from the fact that it was quite clear that this strange Autobot had unleashed a special power boost that they had never seen before. The minute that the blue and red Autobot had shouted those three words, a small area of the sky seemed to distort a little while a faint ding sounded, and then, a strange, circular object with a small tab on the bottom shot down towards the Autobot before inserting itself into a slot on the back of his large jetpack. A second after the object had vanished into the slot, the central part of the jetpack, which looked a bit like a jet's cockpit, suddenly snapped up and then split in half to reveal a pair of large cannons. The energy between the two cannons seemed to build up in a flurry of red lightning before the Autobot let it all loose in one powerful blast.

Lunamaria and Crosshairs were both rather skeptical about how well this would work on the Decepticon, so they were both naturally quite shocked when they saw that this mystery Autobot actually managed to deal some form of damage to the Decepticon, at least if that grunt of pain he let out was any indication. A minute after hearing their leader in slight pain, the Decepticon group was racing away in full retreat, leading Lunamaria and Crosshairs to feel a bit disappointed by how easily these Decepticons were beaten. After another minute off in the direction that the Decepticons had fled in, the two eventually turned to face the Autobots of this universe, only to jump a little, not only at the sight of the red and blue Autobot separating his jetpack and some of his armor so that it could form another Autobot, but at how many familiar faces they saw among these Autobots' number.

The minute that the red and blue Autobot's jetpack and additional armor had separated into another Autobot, they saw him take on an appearance that was a near exact replica of Wing Saber's, and looking around allowed them to pick out a number of other familiar faces and Autobots as well who looked exactly like the ones that they knew. The first of these duplicate Autobots was a look-a-like of Evac, along with Leobreaker and Override, and while the exact matches stopped there, there was no denying that there were still quite a few familiar faces among these Autobots, including one that neither of the two had ever wanted to see again. That was why when the red and blue Autobot had stepped forward to greet them, he and the rest of his team were quickly jumping back in shock when the two suddenly leveled their guns at one particular member of their group.

"Servos where we can them, Scattershot, you slagging traitor," Crosshairs shouted. "I don't know how you're out of stasis prison, but I know how you're going to go back in, assuming you actually get the chance to be put in there: in pieces!"

"Whoa, hey, hold on a minute! What're you talking about? I've never even seen you before in my life," the Scattershot look-a-like protested, his voice showing just causing Lunamaria and Crosshairs to not believe his protest any more than they already would have by default. While he was not exactly like the two remembered him, there was no way that either Lunamaria or Crosshairs would ever forget the face of one of the most loyal and brutal members of Sentinel Prime's inner circle, even if he had added a pair of missile launchers onto his arms while removing the cannons that were previously held on his back when not in use.

"Save it, bastard," Lunamaria quickly snapped. "By the authority of the Sol Federation and the Autobots, you are under arrest for multiple crimes, including betraying the Autobots and their cause, aligning with the Decepticons, willingly following the late, disgraced Prime, Sentinel Prime, and now breaking out of prison."

"Hey, chill out! What're you even talking about," an Autobot that sounded and looked similar to Hot Shot shouted. The main difference between this Autobot and Hot Shot was that this Autobot was clearly built for full-frontal assault-style combat as opposed to racing. "We've never even heard of a Sentinel Prime, and Scattershot's not just a loyal member of the Autobots, he's a valued part of the Cybertron Defense Team."

"And what exactly is this Sol Federation you're even talking about," a white and blue Autobot with a massive cannon on top of his right shoulder added.

"Please, calm down young warriors," an Autobot who was clearly the oldest of the group before the two reasoned in a peaceful, wise-sounding voice. The Autobot in question was silver with some blue here and there, along with some light red, including that which was on his helmet, while a pair of blue wings that seemed to be made of solar panels adorned his back. Another thing that the two had to note was that this Autobot had a number of gold-colored, clockwork-like mechanisms displayed on him, though most would assume that they were merely detailing. "Though he may be similar to one you know, I can assure you that this is not the Scattershot you have come to know."

"What's that supposed to mean," Crosshairs asked, his skepticism still rather high.

The old-looking Transformer just smiled in that way that a wise old, grandfather type of person would when they are trying to teach young ones something important in a calm way, and revealed, "I would think that it was now quite clear that you are not in the realm that you know, but rather, in a universe that is unlike your own."

"Are you saying that this is a different dimension," Lunamaria asked. "And how would you even know if we're from another dimension to begin with?"

"Aside from the fact that you are both clearly quite different from us in both appearance and technology, I would know because I have had much experience with watching over time, space, and reality," the old Autobot revealed.

When he heard that, Crosshairs' optics widened a little, indicating that he had just realized something that he had not before now. "Wait…you don't mean that…you're…"

"Indeed, young warrior. I am Vector Prime," the old Transformer finally revealed.

What followed that revelation was something no one was expecting, including Lunamaria, as Crosshairs had immediately holstered his guns faster than you could blink and was down on his knees in a bow of respect while muttering "I am not worthy" over and over again. When everyone other than Vector Prime looked to the Pure Impulse in silent request for an explanation, Lunamaria simply said, "Don't look at me. I've never seen him do this before."

That was when Crosshairs finally noticed that the Pure Impulse was not following his actions, and he quickly whispered, "Luna, show a little respect! We're in the presence of one of the Original Thirteen Primes! One of the very first Transformers created by Primus himself!"

Lunamaria's eyes immediately went just as wide as Crosshairs' had moments ago, as she could not believe that she was actually in the presence of one of all Cybertronians' earliest ancestors. It was at this point that she finally recalled reading about the Original Thirteen Primes when she was looking over the various information regarding Cybertron's history, and she quickly remembered that Vector Prime was said to be guardian of time and space, as well as an interdimensional traveler, so of course it would make sense that if any Transformer could tell that they were from another dimension, it would have been Vector Prime. Of course, that left one thing unanswered.

"How are you even still alive after all this time, and where have you been…uh, sir," Lunamaria asked.

"The simplest answer, young one, is that I am not actually the Vector Prime you know of, but rather, another version of him that came sent here to aid this universe in its greatest time of need," Vector Prime replied. "Though Vector Prime does travel between dimensions that does not necessarily mean that there cannot still be more than one version of him. Of course, each Vector Prime is well aware of one another, and we each share a special link that allows us to know of certain events in what serves as our respective source realms. That is the main reason as to why I am aware of your situation, and that of your friends and allies, Lunamaria Hawke and Crosshairs."

While some of what the old Transformer said did not make much sense to the two, they were able to understand just enough to make general sense of it, and the fact that this Transformer knew both of their names just enforced the fact that what this Vector Prime was saying was true. Lunamaria was the first one to get out of her shock though, as she immediately realized something very important. "Hey, if you can travel between dimensions, then that means that you could help me and Crosshairs get home, or even help us find our other friends before getting us all home, right?"

Vector Prime's head immediately fell at that point as he replied, "I am afraid that I cannot do that, Lunamaria Hawke. The powers that sent you to our realm are far beyond my capabilities at this time, and even if I were able to send you back, doing so could likely be rather disastrous for me. Furthermore, like the Vector Prime of your realm, I believe that you are both here for a reason, just as your friends who were scattered across reality were sent where they had been for a reason."

Neither Lunamaria or Crosshairs could really understand why Vector Prime would think that they were in another dimension, completely cut off from their friends, family, and loved ones while the Decepticons reawakened Unicron for some greater reason, but at the moment, there were more important things to attend to, starting with getting to know the Autobots of this universe. The leader of the Autobots before seemed to recognize this as well, and he immediately ordered his team to return to their ship so that they could talk some place that was not out in the open.

* * *

The journey to the Autobot ship was filled with Lunamaria and Crosshairs learning the identities of the various Autobots, and they quickly learned that, not only were they right in their guesses as to who the doppelgangers of their friends were, but that nearly the entire team, aside from Vector Prime was made up of alternate versions of their friends. It turned out that Override was still the leader of Velocitron in this universe, while Evac was the guardian of something called the Earth Cyber Planet Key, and Leobreaker was originally a Cybertronian by the name of Overhaul. In addition to this, they also learned that there were also alternate versions of both Jetfire and Snarl among these Autobots, the latter of which actually turned into a wolf instead of a dinosaur like their Snarl did, and the alternate Scattershot's two, equally heavily armed teammates were alternate versions of Hot Shot and Red Alert. Not only that, but this universe's version of Hot Shot, Scattershot, and Red Alert were actually part of a special team known as the Cybertron Defense Team, further reinforcing that this Scattershot was not the same as the treacherous, brutal one that Lunamaria and Crosshairs knew. They were a bit shocked to learn that the red and blue Autobot that had taken on the vehicle mode of a fire truck was this universe's version of Optimus Prime at first, but after a minute or so, it really did make sense that it would be Optimus, and they could not help but feel that it was appropriate for the Autobot leader to take on the form of a rescue vehicle like that.

Really, the only Autobots in this team that they did not know, or ever met in at least one of their cases, was a yellow and brown 'Bot who turned into a front loader with a rear mounted pile driver, and the two, massive Autobots that were locals of the planet they were currently on. The front loader was a 'Bot by the name of Landmine, and he really seemed to give off the kind of vibe you would get from an extremely friendly guy that was easy to talk to and willing to put his life on the line for friends, kind of in a way that was similar to either Mu La Flaga or Andrew Waltfeld, while the two massive Transformers identified themselves as Metroplex and Quickmix, who each spoke in what sounded to Lunamaria like a Scottish accent, strangely enough. Aside from that, they were also informed that they had yet to meet the entire team, as the rest were waiting for them back at their ship, and when they saw the massive, silver and red ship just ahead, the two had a feeling that problem would be rectified quickly enough.

What neither Lunamaria or Crosshairs expected was that he final members of this Autobot team actually consisted of a trio of Mini-Cons named Jolt, Six-Speed, and Reverb, a pair of brothers by the names of Coby and Bud, and a young girl that was the same age as Coby named Lori. Naturally, Lunamaria was a bit concerned about the fact that three human civilians were working alongside the Autobots like it was no big deal, but when she heard about how the three kids had been such a big help to the team, she quickly calmed down. The most surprising of these contributions was the fact that Coby was actually able to perform repairs on all the various Autobots effortlessly, a fact that actually came as a surprise to both Lunamaria and Crosshairs, and given how Landmine was praising the young, blonde boy it was clear who Coby's first and most grateful patient was.

With all the introductions now out of the way, all that was left to explain to the two visitors from another dimension was why the Autobot team was on this planet in the first place. When Optimus started his explanation, it was clear that the circumstances were not something he liked thinking about that much, and the two quickly understood why after they had heard everything. Apparently, sometime after the Autobots had defeated this universe's version of Unicron, a very dangerous black hole had opened up and was now threatening to swallow the entire universe. Cybertron itself had already been pulled into the range of the black hole's grasp, and the Autobots had been forced to evacuate to Earth after scanning vehicle forms that were native to the planet so that they could effectively become robots in disguise. As they were leaving, Vector Prime appeared before them and revealed that the only way to stop the Black Hole was by retrieving ancient relics known as the four Cyber Planet Keys and the Omega Lock, which when brought to Cybertron, would restore Primus himself to life once again. With the power of the creator of the Transformers by their side, there would be no doubt that the Black Hole would be destroyed and the universe saved, but the only problem was that the Decepticons wanted that power for themselves.

Thankfully, the Autobots had managed to secure the Omega Lock and three of the Cyber Planet keys, and even when they had fallen into Starscream's grasp at one point after the former second-in-command of the Decepticons had betrayed Galvatron, back when he was still Megatron, the Autobots had managed to take both the three keys and the Omega Lock back before Starscream could do too much damage with them, much to Lunamaria and Crosshairs' relief. The reason why the team was now on this planet, which they identified as Gigantion, the Giant Planet, home of Metroplex, Quickmix, and the Mini-Cons, was because the final Cyber Planet Key was here on this planet. The two were a bit concerned about how they had deployed their entire team to Gigantion while leaving Cybertron, Earth, and the other planets they had been to unprotected, but Optimus had quickly assured them that they did leave some allies behind to protect those worlds as best as they could, and that they had used the Omega Lock and three Cyber Planet Keys that they already had to at least partially awaken Primus so that he could at least hold off the black hole until they returned.

With that reassurance given, Lunamaria now only had one question, "Why haven't you retrieved the Cyber Planet Key of this world already?"

"Well ye see, lass, the problem with that is that the thing is all the way in the central layer of our planet, and it will take some time fer us to get all the way down there," Metroplex explained.

"They what now," Crosshairs asked in clear confusion.

"He's referring to how we on Gigantion have always lived by a policy of always building up and bigger, and until now, it's been the first rule of our people to never return to a city once we leave it," Quickmix explained. "Of course, our culture and rules won't be doin' us much a lot of good if it gets destroyed. The real problem now is that, due to our laws saying we canna return to a birth once we leave it, just to make sure, we abandoned those cities and erased their data. Until now, we've had nary a clue on where to look until Vector Prime determined the general location of where the Cyber Planet Key was."

"And thanks to Coby, we were able to find the data we needed to get underground," Landmine finished with his voice flowing with pride for his young friend, which quickly made Coby chuckle a little sheepishly in response.

"So you're saying that this planet's massive size is due in part to the fact that you kept building bigger and larger cities, and that when you ran out of room, you just started building a new layer of land to build on," Crosshairs inquired, just to make sure he was understanding correctly.

"Aye, that'd be about right, lad. Looks like ye've got a sharp mind on ya," Metroplex happily nodded in response.

"Well, now that you know all about us, how about we finally get some names to go with your faces," Leobreaker requested. "I know that Vector Prime has already said what your names are, but we'd like to hear them from you anyways."

Crosshairs and Lunamaria both had the decency to adopt sheepish looks at that, not that anyone really saw in the case of the Gundam pilot, and then went on to introduce themselves to their new found allies. "My name's Crosshairs; I'm a paratrooper and the best sharpshooter in all the Autobots and what humans would call our black ops unit, the Wreckers."

"And your friend there," Jetfire asked as he indicated the Pure Impulse, throwing the two off a little once again at how he had a bit of an Australian accent.

Crosshairs had to smirk a little before he asked his next question in response. "You referring to the machine, or the pilot inside it?"

That drew confused looks from everyone other than Vector Prime once they heard that question, and that confusion quickly changed to astonishment when the Pure Impulse's Phase Shift armor suddenly shut off, changing its violet-red and dark blue colors to dull grey, and the cockpit opened to allow Lunamaria to exit her machine. Once she had lowered herself onto the deck with the boarding cable, the violet-redhead removed her helmet and shook her head a bit to free up her hair a little before she looked at the shocked expressions of her hosts with a bright smile and said, "Lunamaria Hawke, pilot of the Pure Impulse Gundam, and proud member of the Gundam Team, and the Z.A.F.T. Special Forces FAITH Unit, at your service."

"Wait, you mean you're just a human inside a giant robot suit," Evac exclaimed in surprise.

"Technically it's called a mobile suit, a special class of one known as a Gundam to be exact, but yeah, pretty much. You make it sound like it's a big deal," Lunamaria replied with a small look of pride and challenge on her face.

"You willingly let a human engage the Decepticons?! What were you thinking," Jetfire demanded of Crosshairs.

"Well right now, I'm thinking that you're not in much of a position to talk, seeing as you're one of the guys who are enlisting the aid of three, human civilians, and kids at that," Crosshairs reminded Jetfire. "Besides, unlike those three, Luna here, is a regular soldier, and she's been fighting alongside the Autobots against enemy Transformers for a few years now."

"Don't forget the fact that I'm one of the best pilots there is," Lunamaria added in with a hint of boasting. "After all, they don't make just anyone a Gundam pilot, and the red uniform I wear is only given to the most elite of Z.A.F.T.'s forces and graduates, like me, my boyfriend, Shinn, and a number of my other friends who either have been, or currently are in Z.A.F.T."

Before anyone could say anything else in this argument, Bud finally jumped in with a shout of his own voice on the matter. "That is so cool! You actually fight Decepticons like one of the Autobots every day? You're like an honorary 'Bot or something!"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Lunamaria waved off.

"Are you kidding? I thought it was pretty cool that Coby managed to build himself a giant robot suit, but this is way cooler," Lori agreed with her younger friend.

"Wait, you have your own version of a mobile suit," Lunamaria asked as she directed a stunned look to Coby.

"Well yeah, but it's definitely not as impressive as yours," Coby admitted. "I mean, that thing looks like it's made of seriously state of the art stuff."

Lunamaria had to smile a little in thanks to the praise she was getting from the three kids, and that praise was eventually joined by the Mini-Cons, though she could only understand Jolt since he was the only one who could actually speak like everyone else did, while the Autobots' arguments finally died down. Eventually though, Lunamaria managed to bring the praise to an end when she remembered something from earlier on in the battle. "Hey, what was that thing that Optimus did earlier to end the fight," the violet-red haired girl asked.

"Yeah, the guy was lit up like a solar flare or something," Crosshairs added.

"That young warriors, was a Cyber Key," Vector Prime revealed.

"A what-now," the two inquired in unison.

"It's a small fragment of Primus and the Cyber Planet Keys' power," Optimus explained. "Frankly, we only learned of it just after Vector Prime joined our team."

"The simple version though, is that whenever you need a little extra power boost of any kind, like extra weapons that pack a serious punch, the Cyber Key grants it to you, but it only lasts until you've used up the key's power for whatever purpose you needed it for," Scattershot explained. "Don't you guys have anything like that where you're from?"

"Uh…no, not really," Crosshairs admitted. "Unless you count certain varieties of energon that give you special powers like super speed or something."

"Well this is a real fine how-do-ya-do, but that still leaves a big question unanswered," Metroplex cut in. "How do ya suppose we get these two back to their fellows?"

"Yeah, if Vector Prime can't get you guys home, then what else can we do," Lori asked.

No one had an answer to that question, and everyone fell into a moment of rather depressing silence at that point until Vector Prime spoke up once again. "I would not worry, my friends. As I had said earlier, I believe that it is the will of Primus that these two are here with us, and it will be by the will of Primus that they do eventually return home due to the efforts of their friends that are still in their dimension."

"Well if that is the case, then until further notice, we would be honored if you would become a part of our team, Lunamaria Hawke and Crosshairs," Optimus offered.

"Hey, do you even have to ask," Crosshairs asked.

"Yeah, I mean, we've always stood with the Autobots in the good fight, so why change things now," Lunamaria added to that.

Everyone immediately gave a smile and nod in thanks to the two after hearing that, until everyone's faces adopted concerned expressions at what Optimus said next. "There's just one last thing that we need to address in regards to you and your machine, Lunamaria."

"Why? What's wrong with the Pure Impulse," Lunamaria immediately asked, thinking that the Prime had noticed some sign of damage that she had previously missed.

"Not to worry, it's nothing to serious, just one small thing concerning how it's able to change from a vehicle mode to a Gundam mode like we can and vice-versa," Optimus reassured her. A minute later, the Prime smiled broadly, threw out a thumbs-up, and said, "You might want to try shouting 'Transform!' when you do that. It'll really get you psyched up."

While Lunamaria and Crosshairs both blanched at that statement, everyone else just burst out laughing in good humor. Eventually though, the two found themselves joining in on the laughter, while Lunamaria eventually said that she would remember that piece of advice as a way of going along with the small joke that Optimus had made. Upon thinking about how Optimus Prime had actually made a joke, Crosshairs and Lunamaria could not help but laugh a little harder at the fact that this Optimus was clearly different from theirs in that regard at the very least, and they were sure that this was going to be just the beginning of the various differences they would in find between this universe and their own.

* * *

After everyone had settled down from all the laughing, the Autobots decided to move out to the location where they were would start tunneling down to the Cyber Planet Key from, and in that time, Lunamaria and Crosshairs had taken the opportunity to tell their hosts about their universe. As she told everyone about her universe from her perspective, Lunamaria could do nothing to keep a humorous smile off her face at the reactions that the three kids and the Autobots who were paying the most attention had to some of the things she told them, as they would either freak out or get really excited about some of the simplest of things, at least in her opinion, be it the fact that the Autobots had helped humans to develop highly advanced technology, or the full story behind Sentinel Prime's faction of rogue Autobots. When Scattershot heard about how his counterpart had acted towards Lunamaria, Crosshairs, and their friends and teammates, he had immediately scowled while promising to deal out his own helping of punishment on the former Autobot should they ever meet one day, a fact that made Luna and Crosshairs both happy to hear. Eventually, the excitement from story time finally died down, and since the ship moved rather slowly through the skies of Gigantion, Lunamaria decided that she might as well familiarize herself with the Decepticons of this universe so she would be prepared for any further encounters she would have with them while she and Crosshairs were still in this universe.

After a few minutes of looking through the various video files on the Decepticons of this universe, and their past battles with the Autobots, Lunamaria found that there was only one thing she could say in description of her honest opinion: she was not impressed at all. This reaction must have shown on her face, as a few seconds later, Lori, Bud, and Coby were all next to her as she scowled a bit at the image that was currently displayed on her monitor. Of course, upon seeing that the image was of Thunderblast, they could not really blame her for scowling. Still, Coby had to ask what he, his brother, and his friend were all wondering all the same. "Is something wrong Miss Hawke?"

When she heard the young mechanic ask that question, Lunamaria had to smile a little before she said, "Hey, you don't have to be so formal with me. Just call me Lunamaria, or Luna, like a lot of my friends do."

The three smiled in response to that, and after a quick nod in reply, Lori decided to get back on track, and said, "Well anyway Luna, we noticed you were looking a bit upset about something on the computer there. Is there some kind of problem or anything?"

"No, not really," Lunamaria immediately reassured the three. "To be honest, my problem is more with your universe's version of the Decepticons than anything else."

"Why's that?"

"Well…how can I put this nicely," Lunamaria muttered for a minute, until she figured that there was really no point in beating around the bush and just came right out with what she was thinking. "Your universe's Decepticons are nothing but a bunch of jokes."

"What? No way," Bud protested. "The Decepticons are all serious bad news!"

"I'm not saying they're all jokes, because there's definitely no denying that guys like Scourge, Starscream, possibly this Menasor guy, and Galvatron, be it now or back when he was Megatron, were all bad news, but the rest of them…well, they seem like they're only Decepticons in name and nothing else," Lunamaria explained.

"What do you mean," Coby asked.

"Well, I've actually fought against a number of these other guys back in my universe, or my universe's version of them, anyway, and if those versions of them saw these guys, they would be very insulted," Lunamaria went on. "I mean, just look at some of these files and really just the guys they're about in general. Ransack and Crumplezone are a couple of idiots that would be better off in some stand-up comedy act than even on a racetrack, Thundercracker is just a nut-case that comes up with a bunch of flashy moves with ridiculous names like he's in some kind of anime, Nemesis Breaker, while definitely tough and able to make Galvatron stronger when they combine, has a mind that's barely any better than pure animalistic instinct, and Thunderblast…well, she's even more of a shameless flirting, floozy than she was back home. Worse than that, she's no better than some fan-girl who just follows around whatever 'Bot she thinks is the most powerful like a lost puppy."

The three kids initially wanted to argue against what Lunamaria was saying, but after a minute or so, they found that they could not deny what she said. It was indeed true that most of the Decepticons were not really that big of a threat without Galvatron or one of the other big hitters around, and really, the only dangerous thing about Thunderblast was the fact that she would shoot off at random when she was even a little annoyed, along with her idea of what qualified as fun. After coming to this conclusion, they all had to finally nod in agreement with Lunamaria's point before they asked her what her universe's version of these Decepticons were like. Lunamaria was all too happy to tell them about her enemies back home, past and present, and when she had finished doing so, the kids could easily understand why Lunamaria would be so disappointed in the quality of the Decepticons in this universe.

Through all of that though, Bud was still hung up on one big thing. "Still, it's so cool that you're actually able to fight alongside the Autobots like you're one of them! I mean, Coby could probably do it too now, but you've been doing it for almost your entire life!"

"Well naturally," Lunamaria smirked in response to the young blonde's praise. "After all, like I said before, I earned this red uniform, and the right to be a Gundam pilot."

"Well you can't blame us for being impressed," Lori disputed. "I mean, you're practically an Autobot yourself, so you're doing way more than any of the three of us have been able to do for our guys."

"I wouldn't go that far," Lunamaria quickly denied. "I mean, if that were true, then anyone who could pilot a mobile suit would be considered an honorary Autobot, even if it weren't for the fact that only us Gundam pilots or really any pilot with capabilities similar to that of such pilots actually work alongside them."

It was at this point that the three kids noticed a slight change in Lunamaria's tune as she had said that; it almost seemed like she was a little unsure of something regarding her position with her team back home. In truth, Lunamaria had found herself often becoming prone to questions about whether or not she really deserved to fight alongside the greats of her home universe like Kira Yamato, Athrun Zala, Optimus Prime, and all the others. In cases like those of Shinn and Rey, she could actually understand since they have far more skill than she could have ever hoped to possess, but in her case, Lunamaria could not help but feel like she only became the pilot of the original Impulse because Shinn had upgraded to the Destiny Gundam and there was no one else on the _Minerva_ that would have been a better option. Sure, she had a place on the Gundam Team, and Shinn and the others had often told her that she did belong with them out there when they noticed these few moments of doubt, but there was always this underlying feeling inside of Lunamaria that made her wonder just how worthy she really was to be part of such a great legacy. It was actually the main reason why she would always seem like she was boasting about how she had earned her status as a Z.A.F.T. red, because it was a way of both reassuring herself that she did belong there, or just hiding how scared she was and how much she doubted the fact at times.

Of course, the three kids were not the only ones to notice Lunamaria's voice had indicated her thoughts had started drifting to these self-doubts, as Crosshairs had picked up on it as well. Such a thing was only natural for him, partially because he was a sniper, and partly because he was also Lunamaria's Autobot guardian and partner, so it was only natural that he should be able to notice such things. The main reason for this however, was the fact that he had known Lunamaria for so long now. The two of them had served together back since the early days of when the Autobot Civil War was still known as simply the Second Bloody Valentine War, so it made sense that they would know each other pretty well by now. To be honest though, while he had long since known that Lunamaria would sometimes question whether or not she deserved to be part of the team, he had honestly thought that she had gotten past those doubts by now. Lunamaria had long since proven that she did indeed deserve to be part of the team, be it the Gundam Team, the Destiny Trio, or really any other team that she was associated with, but for some strange reason, it seemed like she had managed to prove that fact to everyone other than herself. Crosshairs knew that a mindset like that could often be a liability for some people, but he was not all that worried about how it would affect Lunamaria in the coming battles, at least for the moment.

Such thoughts and worries would have to wait until later though, as the ship's sensors soon picked up on something that sounded the alarms, drawing everyone's attention to Scattershot as he brought up an image of what had sounded the alarm. A minute later, everyone other than Lunamaria and Crosshairs was glaring at the sight of Galvatron and his Decepticons standing before the very area that they had been heading towards, while the two from another universe just gave small groans of annoyance, more due to the sight of Galvatron's little group of love-sick puppies who claimed to be Decepticons than anything else. Those sentiments aside, there was no denying that they would have to fight their way passed the Decepticons if they wanted to go any further, so that left Optimus with only one option of orders. "Autobots, roll out!"

"Mind if we join you," Crosshairs asked as he indicated himself and Lunamaria.

"Hey, any help is welcome," Jetfire nodded in acceptance for everyone.

"Besides, what self-respecting Autobot would pass up a chance to put the hurt on those Decepti-creeps," Hot Shot added in jest.

"No arguments there, Hot Shot," Scattershot agreed, with Red Alert only nodding in similar response as well.

Lunamaria and Crosshairs both gave Scattershot a small look when they heard his comment, as they were still a bit unsure about whether or not they could trust him, but Lunamaria's suspicious look quickly became replaced by one that showed a bit of how uncertain she was as she wondered if it really was possible for someone who she knew to be scum in her universe to be a legitimate hero in another one. If that was the case, then what did that say about how qualified she really was to be one of her universe's heroes, or even how much right she really had to stand with the greatest of them? Such doubts showed themselves clear as day to Crosshairs once again, and that was when he suddenly found himself worrying about how well Lunamaria would be able to handle herself in the battle that they were about to face. There was not any time to really discuss the matter at length though, so Crosshairs simply had to settle with giving his partner a confident smile in an attempt to reassure her and then race off along with the other Autobots while Vector Prime and the Mini-Cons stayed behind to look after the ship and the kids.

* * *

In a rare moment of honesty with anyone beyond his own men, Galvatron really could not care less about whether or not Optimus Prime and his Autobots made it to their destination so that they could begin making their way to Gigantion's central layer; he was certain that no matter what happened, he would manage to eventually seize the Cyber Planet Key for himself without any trouble, so whether or not the Autobots got a small head start made no difference to him. The reason why he and his troops were now standing before the Autobots in their advance to their starting point was not due to a lack of confidence in that belief, but rather, because he was feeling rather affronted by the sudden additions to their forces: the two mystery Autobots that had jumped in and saved Optimus Prime and his men during the previous battle. Now normally, such things would not be something that Galvatron would have bothered concerning himself with, but there was something about those two that made him feel uneasy for some strange reason. It was not a feeling he could really explain; the best way he could describe it would be to say that they did not feel like something that belonged here, and while that feeling was not very strong, the fact that he did feel it at all made it a matter of concern for him. Bearing that in mind, there was only one solution that Galvatron could see to his problem: eliminating the two as swiftly and mercilessly as possible.

So when he saw the green one of the two come out with Optimus Prime and the rest of his rag-tag team, Galvatron could not help smirking a little in amusement while simultaneously scowling on the inside at the fact that it looked like the violet-red and blue one was nowhere to be found. Of course, he immediately drew his attention to the upcoming battle ahead when Optimus Prime transformed into his super mode and shouted, "Out of the way, Galvatron, before we make you move!"

"Ha! I'd like to see you try, Optimus Prime," Galvatron scoffed in response.

"Yeah, the big boss easily threw you around like you were nothing last time, so there's no way he's scared of you," Thundercracker immediately added.

"Yeah! Galvatron's the best, Autobots the lamest! He's gonna make 'em all go splat," Ransack and Crumplezone cheered like a pathetic cheer squad.

"This is gonna be so awesome," Thunderblast cooed. "Don't you just love seeing a total hunk like Galvatron flexing his muscles like this?"

"Hunk," Scourge inquired as though the word were completely foreign to him. Then again, Thunderblast was just strange in general to the ruler of Jungle Planet, so he probably should not be so surprised by any of this.

"Why don't you losers spare yourselves the humiliation and leave now, before we make you even more of an embarrassment than you already are," Lunamaria's voice suddenly called out, drawing all of the Decepticons' attention as they started looking around in confusion for the violet-red haired girl's machine. "I mean really, aside from Galvatron, Scourge, and Menasor there, you guys seriously expect me to believe that _any_ of _you_ are supposed to be Decepticons? More like Decepti-dorks, or maybe Wannabe-Cons."

"Hey, who're you calling a wannabe," Thundercracker snapped.

"Oh please, you're probably the most pathetic of your entire team," Lunamaria's voice continued on, with the Gundam pilot still not showing herself, while Crosshairs just knowingly smirked at what his partner was doing. "I mean really, maybe if you actually tried putting some effort into aiming and practicing your combat skills instead of just making up a bunch of flashy moves, you could be dangerous. Then there's the bozo-duo over there."

"Bozo-duo," Ransack asked.

"Hey, you think she's talking about us," Crumplezone asked his long-time best friend.

"Well of course I am," Lunamaria revealed. "You two couldn't even win a race against a toy car, let alone hold your own in a real fight, so tell me, how many lies did you have to throw out before Galvatron finally decided to let you in just so that you would stop bugging him about it?" That comment immediately made the Velocitron Decepticons bristle, but Lunamaria still was not done. "And don't even get me started on the floozy over there."

"HEY," Thunderblast snapped.

"Oh don't try and act like your anything other than that. The only thing dangerous about you is how flimsy you are. Really, you'd jump ship the minute someone more powerful than Galvatron came along, and then throw yourself at them like it was no big deal. You might be a somewhat capable fighter, but that is vastly overshadowed by how much of a total, bitchy, slutty, twig you really are."

"What'd you call me," Thunderblast yelled, clearly indicating just how many of her buttons that Lunamaria successfully managed to push. "You'd better check yo'self, sista! Don't act so high and mighty when you're hiding in the shadows like some coward!"

"Please, the last time I met a 'Con by the name of Thunderblast, she actually was a bit of a threat, but you…fighting you would be a total waste of my time, and that of all the rest of ours as well."

"Humph. All I'm hearing from you is a bunch of squeaking, little mouse, so unless you actually plan to do something other than insult me, I'm not buying any of that."

That was Thunderblast's mistake, because an instant later, the female Decepticon was blown sky-high by a pair of energon beam blasts, courtesy of the Pure Impulse Gundam as it swooped in to join the others. A quick flick of the wrist was all that it took for Crosshairs to then send both Crumplezone and Ransack flying as well, which soon left Thundercracker to push aside, a problem that was quickly corrected by Lunamaria firing off another round from the cannons of her Gundam's vehicle mode. With the last of the more pathetic Decepticons out of the way, Lunamaria figured it was time for her to properly join the real fight and spun her machine around so that it would be standing with the others when she landed. As she approached, she remembered what Optimus had said before, and could not help but smirk as she decided to take his advice to heart, at least this time, and then shouted, "Pure Impulse Gundam, TRANSFORM!"

As soon as Lunamaria had shouted that, she flipped the switch to transform her machine into Gundam mode, and the Pure Impulse Gundam was soon standing alongside the other Autobots in a fighting pose the minute it had become a Gundam once again, making Lunamaria feel like she had just gone through some type of strange sequence that one would find in some kids' show once she had, but still feeling the rush that Optimus Prime had mentioned before. When the others saw her standing strong and proud alongside them, the Autobots were quickly giving a thumbs-up and voices of approval to show just how well she had nailed that little bit just now, making any embarrassment she may have felt a moment ago vanish completely and become replaced by mild laughter. Sadly, the moment could not last, a fact that proved quite true the minute that the team had turned to face their remaining opponents: Nemesis Breaker, and what Lunamaria had described as the only real threats among the Decepticons.

"A rather unexpected tactic, Optimus, but if you really think it will make any difference, then you're about to be gravely disappointed," Galvatron informed the Autobot leader and his team at large before turning to the dark clone of Leobreaker. "Nemesis Breaker, to me! Let's show these fools what happens when you prove foolish enough to cross my path."

Nemesis Breaker just roared in response before leaping into the arm and transforming into a large, silver and black arm. Galvatron's left arm then retracted into his chest, opening up a connection port that the dark lion's arm form instantly connected to. Once Nemesis Breaker was in place, a silver and black hand burst out of the arm, completing Galvatron and Nemesis Breaker's combination into Dark Claw Mode. With the two Decepticons now combined into one, the forces of both sides immediately charged, with a small group of Autobots taking on one of the remaining three Decepticons. Naturally, Metroplex and Quickmix were quick to try and face Menasor, seeing as the massive, green Decepticon was from their world, with Override, Evac, and Jetfire joining in, leaving Scourge to face Leobreaker, Snarl, and Landmine. That just left Galvatron to deal with Optimus Prime, Wing Saber, Lunamaria, Crosshairs, and the Cybertron Defense Team.

Lunamaria would have tried to keep an eye on the other battles that were taking place, but considering how easily Galvatron had thrashed her and Crosshairs when they last met him, she was much more concerned with her own battle than she was with anyone else's. There was also the fact that she was still a bit weary of Scattershot, a sentiment that Crosshairs naturally shared, so they both considered it natural that they would want to take part in this major battle as a way to keep a better eye on the alternate version of the Autobot traitor they both knew from back home. Then again, that was not so easily done, as they had to put a great deal of focus into the battle against Galvatron, who was constantly moving around them at an incredible speed that they both felt could have rivaled Blurr's, while the power behind his attacks was likely on par with that of Predaking's. Lunamaria eventually received first-hand experience with the latter, as Galvatron slammed his dark claw directly into her Gundam, sending flying across the battlefield until it had landed next to the Autobot ship, and considering that she and the others fighting Galvatron were at a point where the ship was a great distance away from them, that was really saying something in regards to Galvatron's power while he was combined with Nemesis Breaker, never mind the fact that he had yet to use any Cyber Keys while Hot Shot, Red Alert, and Wing Saber had each fired off a blast from the powers and weapons that they gained from their own Cyber Keys.

Crosshairs quickly took notice of how Lunamaria was thrown away so easily, and while he was upset with Galvatron for inflicting such harm on his partner, he was also concerned about said partner's performance in the battle thus far. Despite her best attempts, many of Lunamaria's strikes seemed a bit more sloppy than usual, while her efforts to evade any serious blows were a bit slower than usual, almost like she was trying to avoid the hits after just noticing them at nearly the last moment. All this practically screamed that the girl was distracted by something, and if he had to guess, he had to say that it was probably due in no small part to how confused she had become since hearing that Scattershot was still a loyal Autobot in this universe. It was not really a question of how much she really trusted Scattershot now, but it was more of the idea that she was now doubting herself more than ever at the realization that someone who she knew to be evil in their lifetime was actually a hero in another one, and that simple fact was now making Lunamaria question just how worthy she really was of the belief that everyone else had in her.

None of that really mattered at the moment though, as Crosshairs had decided to focus a bit more on the anger he felt towards Galvatron for hurting his friend. As a result, the paratrooper Wrecker immediately charged through the battlefield towards the white and black Decepticon with a bestial arm with a loud roar while firing his pistols at a rapid pace. Eventually, Crosshairs' assault caused so much smoke to be whipped up whether the shots hit the Decepticon or the ground around him, and he had to pause in his charge to wait for it to clear, knowing that doing otherwise would likely prove to be disastrous. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake, because a second later, Galvatron's Dark Claw hand suddenly lunged out from the smoke, grabbed him in its grasp, and then tossed Crosshairs away like an old rag doll. Crosshairs was not too seriously hurt when he hit the ground, nor was he even thrown as far as Lunamaria was, but as he was starting to rise, he quickly realized that it was because Galvatron was not trying to throw him away, as the Decepticon leader was now standing a few feet away from him with a hand raised in his direction and coursing with lightning, indicating that Galvatron was intending to finish Crosshairs off with a powerful blast of energy.

Crosshairs knew that there was probably not going to be any time to avoid the attack, so he quickly shut his optics, bracing himself for the inevitable, when someone shouting out to him drew his attention. A minute later, Crosshairs opened his optics once more, just in time to see someone jump in front of the attack and take the blow in his place, much to his shock. That surprise only increased along with Lunamaria's when the two saw that Scattershot had been the one to step in the way of the attack. "Why…why did you do that," Crosshairs asked. "After how Luna and I have been treating you, why would you still help me?"

"Hey, just because you're not big fans of me, doesn't mean I don't like you guys," Scattershot grunted as he started to shake off the pain. "Besides, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of me, because I'm always going to keep on fighting the good fight like any true Autobot would, even if I get knocked down a little doing so."

Lunamaria somehow knew that Scattershot was talking to her just as much as he was Crosshairs, more than likely because Scattershot had noticed some of the same things her partner no doubt already had, and after hearing those words, she could not help but pause and think for a minute. Lunamaria had always thought that she held a great deal of belief in her skills, but after thinking about it for a minute, she soon realized that it was mostly because others believed in her. All this time, she had been more concerned about what others thought of her and making sure that she did not let any of them down, and never once did she realize that how much she believed in herself held just as much importance as anything else. She now knew that it was unlikely she would ever let Shinn or any of other friends and comrades down, so it was time that she finally started making sure she did not let herself down, because if she did not believe in herself, then why should anyone else.

With this new realization upon her, Lunamaria looked back up at the battle that was still unfolding ahead of her, and her eyes quickly narrowed in determination as she gunned her machine forward with a new-found confidence burning inside of her that was unlike anything she had felt before. The minute she was close enough to Galvatron, she activated the Pure Impulse's arm blades, and unleashed a pair of slashes on the Decepticon with as much power as her machine could muster. The blows made Galvatron stumble for a moment, and that was all the time that Lunamaria needed to draw the Pure Impulse's Anti-Ship swords and then combine them together into a double-bladed sword that she quickly used to press her attack. Unfortunately, Galvatron was able to recover much more quickly than Lunamaria had expected, and once he had, he could only smirk at Lunamaria's attempt to strike him before he suddenly seemed to vanish into thin air.

"What?! Where did he…" Lunamaria started to ask, but she found herself crying out in shock as her question was interrupted by a sudden blow to her machine's back, courtesy of Galvatron's Dark Claw.

"Is this really all the two mystery Autobots have to offer me? I'm actually starting to feel rather insulted," Galvatron boasted as he stood over the Pure Impulse's fallen form.

"Well let's see how insulting you find this, Decepti-creep," Crosshairs shouted as he and Scattershot both charged in with guns blazing in an attempt to draw Galvatron away from Lunamaria.

Galvatron just scoffed at the two's efforts before he summoned the Cyber Key for his Dark Claw mode's power boost, and the minute that the key had clicked into the slot, the silver claws that were on the end of the bestial arm immediately folded out so that they were fully extended for battle. After letting the claws charge up with powerful energy, which surged around them in a brilliant storm of lightning, Galvatron immediately charged towards the two and hit them both head on, sending Crosshairs and Scattershot flying until they hit the ground with a hard thud, much to Lunamaria, Hot Shot, Red Alert, Optimus, and Wing Saber's horror. The four Autobots were quick to start unleashing every ounce of power they had to make Galvatron pay for what they did, but Galvatron just brushed it all off like he was dealing with nothing more than a few irritating bug bites and began to slowly make his way towards the two fallen warriors as they tried to stand up. After a minute though, Galvatron did pause in his advance when someone suddenly flew past him and then placed themselves in his path.

When Galvatron looked to see who was now standing in his way and saw the Pure Impulse standing in front of Crosshairs and Scattershot protectively, he just laughed like he had heard the best joke in existence and asked, "Do you really think you can stop me from finishing your friends off?"

"Maybe not, but I won't know unless I try," Lunamaria retorted, only faintly noticing how a strange ringing and a small pulsing sound was starting to reach her ears. "But these guys are counting on me to watch their backs. They believe in me, but that doesn't mean scrap if I don't start believing in myself just as much as they do. Something that I fully intend to do from now on, and that's why I'll be able to stand up against creeps like you even more proudly than ever before!"

What Lunamaria did not realize was that while she was speaking, a faint aura of red energy had started building up around her and the Pure Impulse, surprising all who saw it, including Galvatron, who ended up taking a small step back as a result of his surprise. "Whoa, what's going on here," Crosshairs asked as he finally managed to get himself into a kneeling position.

"No way," Scattershot whispered in disbelief.

"Is that what I think it is," Hot Shot asked.

"I don't know. I mean, is it even possible for a human to do that," Wing Saber asked.

"Apparently it is now," Red Alert reasoned.

* * *

From where they were watching on the ship, the Mini-Cons, the kids, and Vector Prime had all felt their concern for their friends increasing with every second that passed, especially when they saw how brutally Galvatron was dealing with Crosshairs, Lunamaria, and Scattershot, but when the Pure Impulse started glowing, they too were all pausing in shock for a minute as a familiar sound reached the ears of the kids. "The omega frequency," Lori gasped in awe.

"So does that mean…" Bud started to ask.

"I think it does," Coby nodded.

"That's a new Cyber Key," Vector Prime gasped. "One that's fit for Lunamaria and Lunamaria alone!"

* * *

Lunamaria did not really know why, but she suddenly felt the need to let out a powerful cry as power suddenly seemed to surge through her, and an instant later, a bright light seemed to flash before her before it died down and revealed a small, circular object with a small tab at the bottom. The object in question was a violet shade that matched her hair in color, and had a silver, decorative edge around it that, while in the center of the circle was the familiar symbol of the Z.A.F.T. forces, and after gazing at the glowing object in awe for a minute, Lunamaria reached up and let it fall into the palm of her hand as she realized just what it was: a Cyber Key. After glancing from the newly appeared Cyber Key to the strange slot that activated an unknown feature on her mobile suit, Lunamaria allowed a grin to form on her face, and immediately spun the key around so that the tab was aimed towards the slot before she inserted the key into it and cried out, "Lunamaria Hawke, Pure Impulse Gundam…CYBER KEY POWER!"

Mere seconds later, a full-sized duplicate of the Cyber Key that Lunamaria had inserted into the slot in her cockpit came soaring out of the sky before inserting itself into a slot on the Pure Impulse's back. Once it had, the top of the Gundam's backpack suddenly opened up a pair of slots that no one had noticed before, allowing a pair of heavy duty Gatling guns to extend up and out until they were perfectly positioned over the Pure Impulse's shoulders on either side of its head. Lunamaria then locked her targeting designators onto Galvatron before firing the newly acquired weapons, and a furious barrage of energon beam blasts were soon peppering Galvatron in a way that one of his own weapons often could whenever he used it. After suffering from the continuous stream of blasts for another few minutes, Galvatron was eventually knocked off his feet and pushed further away from the three he had been standing before.

Every battle that had been taking place at that point came to a grinding halt as the combatants all turned to watch what would happen after this sudden new development, and soon after Galvatron managed to bring himself back to his feet with a very angry growl. "You insolent, little…I'll make you pay for this humiliation," Galvatron promised as he glared at the Pure Impulse.

"I highly doubt that," Lunamaria scoffed in retort as her Gundam lit up with an aura of energy once again while it brought its Beam Cannons to bear. Since the power of Lunamaria's Cyber Key was still flowing through it, the minute that the Gundam's Beam Cannons were brought up, the barrels seemed to split open while energy built up between the two halves and the cannons' barrels, much like how Optimus Prime's cannons would whenever he used his own Cyber Key, while in the cockpit, a multi-targeting system suddenly flashed to life before Lunamaria's eyes. The sight of such a thing was a bit of a shock to her at first, as she had long since gotten used to the idea that only Kira and Athrun's machines had such a system installed, but she quickly shook it off and made sure that it was fully locked on to some point on Galvatron before she finally shouted, "Now taste this! FINAL IMPULSE BURST!"

The minute she had shouted that, Lunamaria activated her machine's arm blasters and let loose a powerful barrage of energon beams from each of her Gundam's weapons, and if Crosshairs had to compare it to something, he would say that it was actually rather similar to the Full Burst Mode that the Strike Freedom had. Such things were not important at the moment, as Lunamaria's attack successfully landed on its mark without any trouble at all, sending Galvatron flying as a result. Seeing that their leader had actually been injured in this battle, the remaining Decepticons did not hesitate to rush to Galvatron's aid before following him in full retreat as the Autobots cheered in celebration of their victory.

* * *

A few hours later, when everyone had settled down from celebrating their recent victory and Lunamaria's obtaining a Cyber Key of her own, the Autobots were working out some plans on how to proceed forward in their travels to the central layer of Gigantion, leaving Lunamaria and Crosshairs some time to spend with Vector Prime, the kids, and the other few Autobots who were not extremely vital to forming the plans. During that time, Lunamaria and Crosshairs had regaled everyone with stories of the adventures and battles that had taken place in their universe, whether it be their own battles or those of others, and as they spoke, everyone was soon able to see why Lunamaria had trouble finding the ability to believe in herself for a while, given how amazing she indicated the other Gundam pilots were in comparison to her, but in all honesty, none of them really seemed to think any less of her, because today, they all thought that Lunamaria Hawke was the greatest pilot of them all. Lunamaria was flattered by such praise, of course, but there was still one thing that was bothering her.

"How did the Pure Impulse even gain the ability to use a Cyber Key in the first place," Lunamaria finally asked after she and Crosshairs had paused in their storytelling while she glanced at the specialized watch on her wrist that her Cyber Key was now stored inside of. The device in question had actually just appeared there after the battle had ended and the Pure Impulse's new weapons had returned to their inactive state, and while the full-sized version of the key had vanished, the small one that Lunamaria had plugged into the control in her cockpit remained, leaving her to wonder how she was going to keep it on her in a way that would allow her to use it at a moment's notice when she got home until the watch had appeared. "I mean, the control necessary had been present in my machine for a long time, and that was long before we even knew about these things. Banagher and Miss Erica were both overseeing everything involved in the development of the Transformer Gundams, and they never even saw the thing until I brought it to their attention, so how did it get there?"

"I believe that it was through the will of Primus," Vector Prime offered in suggestion.

"What do you mean by that, sir," Crosshairs asked. "I mean, how could Primus have made it possible for the Pure Impulse to gain that ability when it's not even a Cybertronian?"

"Primus is considered to be the creator of all Transformers so long as they have energon running through them, so even though Lunamaria's Gundam is a human-created version of a Transformer, it is just as much a creation of Primus since it runs on energon," Vector Prime explained.

"Is that even possible though," Lori asked. "I mean, could it really be as simple as saying that Primus was able to grant Luna's Gundam that ability just because it's powered by energon?"

"The universe as a whole works in mysterious ways that even we don't always fully understand, but sometimes, even the simplest of explanations can be all that is necessary," Optimus reasoned.

"But why just my own machine and not all of them," Lunamaria asked.

"Well if Primus is like the god of all Transformers, then wouldn't that mean he could know of what would eventually happen to you and your friends," Coby offered. "I mean, if he knew that you would be the only one to come to our universe, then it would kind of make sense that he would only give your machine the ability to gain a Cyber Key."

"Primus may be our creator, but he is not able to predict the future," Vector Prime argued.

"Well maybe Primus is different in Luna and Crosshairs' universe," Bud proposed. "I mean, Scattershot is supposed to be one of the bad guys in their universe, so who's to say that other things aren't different as well?"

"Look, we can sit here and guess all day, but at the end of it all, we probably won't ever know anything for certain," Crosshairs finally cut in. "Let's just take what we got and go by that old human saying about not looking a horse's gift in the eye."

"I think you mean don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Lunamaria corrected.

"Now that just doesn't make any sense," Crosshairs disputed, gaining a round of laughter from everyone in response. Eventually, once the laughter had faded away, the group split up again so that they could get to work on saving this universe while trying to find a way for Lunamaria and Crosshairs to return home, but what no one knew, was that the two were both confident that their friends would find a way to get them back long before they did, while at the same time, they were also worried about what they would find when they did return home.

* * *

 **Location: Main Universe's Cybertron**

Ratchet was grumbling in irritation once again as one of the control panels he was working at sparked a little in response to his efforts to repair both it and the ship that he and Nicol were currently in. It honestly baffled the Autobot representative to Earth as to why Bumblebee thought it would be possible to bring this old thing back online again, but at the same time, he was just grateful that the Earth Division leader was not asking for something that was completely impossible, like the restoration of the most powerful Autobot titan in history. Of course, given the time limit he was currently working with, there was a good chance that this project was almost just as impossible for Ratchet, especially if he were doing it alone, but since he had help from Nicol, he would not deny that the chances of succeeding were probably better.

"I think I've just about got it, Ratchet," Nicol called out from the computer he was currently crawling around inside of. The biggest advantage of having Nicol help out with this was the fact that he could get into the small places that Ratchet could not reach due to his own size, much like a Mini-Con could, and since Nicol's pilot suit had been modified to protect him from various forms of harm, there was very little risk to his person as well. After the green haired pilot crawled out of the computer he had been inside of, he looked to the Autobots' former chief medic and asked, "Is that everything?"

"Hopefully it will be, but we won't know for certain until we power everything up," Ratchet nodded in confirmation. "Have you connected the Nero Blitz to the central power chamber?"

"Yeah, some time ago, actually," Nicol confirmed. "But remind me again why we had to do that?"

"Because it may become necessary to give our old friend here a jumpstart using the Nero Blitz's Energon Reactor Core," Ratchet revealed as he closed the panel he was working on, fairly confident that his repair job on it would be successful. "Alright, you'd best get to your machine so that you'll be ready for when I give the signal."

Nicol nodded in response and immediately joined Ratchet in heading down to the central power chamber, where he then climbed into his Gundam and proceeded to standby for the signal that Ratchet had mentioned. When he had first heard Bumblebee's orders for him and Ratchet, Nicol had thought they would be heading for an old Autobot medical facility, so naturally, he was a bit surprised when the old doctor brought them to the wreckage of an old, yet massive ship that seemed to be equal or even bigger in size than the _Omega III_. Considering what he could see of the ship and its combat capabilities, Nicol did not really complain that much, but he had honestly expected something more along the lines of another Autobot warrior. Nicol eventually brought his mind back to the matter at hand and watched as Ratchet started flipping various switches and powering up a number of different consoles as everything in the room they were in seem to come alive, but it did not seem to be enough, especially if Ratchet's expression was any indication.

Eventually, the old doctor finally turned to his current partner and gave Nicol the signal that he had been waiting for, and the green haired youth immediately activated the Nero Blitz's Energon Reactor Core, causing a reaction that was similar to that when one was giving a jumpstart to a car. As he watched the power chamber glow brighter at a rather slow pace, Ratchet eventually muttered, "Come on, old friend. I know you're in there and that you've still got something left in you, so don't let us down now. You can do this!"

At that point, Nicol had finally reached his limit in regards to hearing Ratchet talking to the ship like it was a person, not that he really had anything against it, but there was a time and a place for such things. Still, he somehow managed to try and gently say, "Ratchet, I know this ship probably means a lot to you, but I doubt that it can really…"

"Systems: rebooting," a deep, baritone voice suddenly announced around them, interrupting Nicol as it did, and it sounded a little too life-like to be a computer. "Self-Repair and diagnostics: running at current maximum capacity. Status report and identification required."

"It's good to hear your voice again old friend," Ratchet gasped in relief.

"Inquiry: designation Ratchet?"

"Yes, it's me, and I'm happy to tell you that the war for Cybertron is over, and our planet is alive again, thanks in no small part to your efforts."

"News greatly received," the baritone voice seemed to sigh in response before a number of the internal weapons systems seemed to suddenly start activating. "Warning: unknown organic life form detected within central power chamber. Preparing to commence cleansing."

"No, stand down! He's a friend," Ratchet immediately shouted as he put himself between the guns and the Nero Blitz.

"Explanation required."

Ratchet gestured for his young friend to speak up, and when he finally found his voice again, the Gundam pilot announced, "My name is Nicol Amalfi of Planet Earth. I'm a human being, and my people have been allies and friends of the Autobots for a few years now."

"Human kind: allies," the voice asked.

"A lot has happened in the time you have been gone, old friend. We had wanted to let you have a peaceful rest, but something has happened that requires your assistance again," Ratchet explained.

"…Information regarding recent history and developments required," the voice eventually asked.

"I can upload that into your memory banks if you'd like," Nicol offered.

"Offer appreciated and gladly accepted," the voice said as it disengaged the weapons, allowing Nicol to move over to one the nearby computers so he could upload the information from a laptop he had brought with him. "Self diagnostic scans completed. Transformation capabilities currently non-functional. All weapons batteries and engines operating at acceptable capacities. Conclusion: likely only able to function as additional ship at this time."

It was clear to both of the two by the voice's tone that, despite how monotone and computerized the words were, this individual was actually feeling rather sad, like someone who was afraid they would not be of any help when others needed them most, but only Ratchet had spoken up with words of reassurance as he said, "Don't worry; we're doing everything we can to restore you to your original operating capacity, and more than that, you and I both know that sometimes, one ship can make all the difference."

Before the exchange could continue, Nicol and Ratchet's comm. links suddenly pinged in signaling of an incoming transmission, and the two immediately tapped said devices to hear who was calling them. _"Bumblebee to Ratchet; I need a status update on your progress."_

"We've only just gotten him back online, and at the moment, he's only at half of his full operating capacity. Right now, it would be like adding another ship to our forces, and that's it," Ratchet reported, while Nicol was completely fine with letting the usually grouchy doctor do all the talking since he was not entirely sure of what they were doing now. "We just need a little more time."

 _"Hate to break it to you, old pal, but you're out of time. The Decepticons are on the attack."_

That got a response from Nicol, as both his and Ratchet's eyes had immediately widened in horror upon hearing that. "Where are they attacking," Nicol asked.

 _"It'd be easier to tell you where they are not attacking,"_ Bumblebee revealed. _"They're everywhere! I'm getting reports of assaults on Velocitron, Junkion, Nebulous, all over Earth, and even on Cybertron! Everyone on the defense forces that we deployed are doing what they can, but Spartan just called in with a request for reinforcements, and right now, you three are the only ones who can get to him fast enough."_

"But he's not ready yet," Ratchet argued. "Weren't you listening? At the moment it'll be like sending out another ship, and that may not…"

"Mission accepted," the baritone voice interrupted. Before Ratchet could argue, the voice immediately shut the Autobot representative to Earth down by saying, "Sometimes, one ship can make all the difference."

Ratchet knew there was no arguing when his own words were thrown back at him like that, especially in the case of 'Bots like this one, so he eventually just nodded in response and then said, "Alright then. Bumblebee, we're on our way to Spartan's location, so please inform him of that. We'll just have to do what we can to get him back to his old fighting strength while en route."

 _"Understood. Just do what you can, and I'll do whatever I can from…Grimlock, watch out! Ah, scrap; I've gotta go, Ratchet. Best of luck."_ Bumblebee then cut off communication after that dismissal, and the two were now left to their newest job.

"Well, you heard Bumblebee, old friend, so let's not waste anymore time here," Ratchet said to the ship.

"Orders received. Commencing lift-off. Destination: current location of Autobot forces commanded by Spartan," the voice boomed in response, and the two then felt the ship shake as the engines fired up and propelled the ship up off the ground.

Before they got too far underway, Nicol decided to finally ask the big question that he still had not received an answer to. "Just one thing real quick: who are you exactly?"

When he heard the ship's response, Nicol could only grin excitedly as he had then realized what he and Ratchet had been doing all along, and he knew that when he told the others, they would likely be very jealous of him. "Designation: **Omega Supreme**."

* * *

 **Teletraan I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID: ZGMF-** **CX56S/Σ Pure Impulse Gundam**

 **Pilot: Lieutenant Commander Lunamaria Hawke of the Z.A.F.T. Forces FAITH Unit, Gundam Team Member**

 **History: Most recent iteration of the Impulse Gundam and its various silhouette packs. Like the Grand Destiny in relation to the Arch Destiny, the Pure Impulse is partially considered to be the successor to the Fury Impulse Gundam, though this is not entirely accurate, as it is more like a newly upgraded version of the original Impulse Gundam with a new silhouette pack.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: Though not normally used, as Lunamaria tends to prefer the Anti-Ship swords that the machine is equipped with for moments that require close-combat, the Pure Impulse does come equipped with a set of arm blades. The closest comparison of their design would be that of the blades that are used by the Autobot Warrior Arcee.**

 **Arm Blasters: The default, long-range weapons of the Pure Impulse, as is the case for all Transformer Gundams, these blasters are easily comparable to those used by Arcee.**

 **Alt Mode: A large fighter jet. It is believed that due to the Pure Impulse possessing the same transformation capabilities of the previous versions of the Impulse, it is also able to split into three smaller jets.**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS:**

 **Flight/Pure Silhouette Pack: The primary equipment of the Pure Impulse Gundam which provides the MS with each of its additional armaments, and stores its more notable weapons systems. The backpack also provides the Pure Impulse with enhanced flight capabilities in space and in the atmosphere.**

 **"Excalibur" Anti-Ship Laser Swords: For more information, see the identically named weapons of the Sword Impulse**

 **"Kerberos" High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannons: For more information, see the identically named weapons of the Blast Impulse. Main difference is that when enhanced with the powers of a Cyber Key, these cannons are able to open the barrels and unleash a more powerful discharge of energy.**

 **Beam Shield Generator**

 **Heavy Beam Gatling Cannons: Only accessible through the use of a Cyber Key, these powerful, multi-barrel cannons extended out from the top of the Pure Impulse's backpack and are capable of unleashing a powerful barrage of energon beam blasts that could tear through the shields of a Cybertronian starship if the power levels are high enough. They are also additional weapons that are activated by default for every time that a Cyber Key is plugged into the Pure Impulse, and they are also capable of firing a constant stream of energy along with the rest of the Pure Impulse's weapons, providing the machine with its own version of the Strike Freedom Gundam's Full Burst Mode.**

* * *

 _ **AN: So that's the end of that little adventure. Be honest, how many of you guessed that Luna was going to get a Cyber Key of her own when you first heard about her Gundam's mystery feature? To be honest, this chapter was also meant as a way for us to really get to know Lunamaria a little better, at least in this continuity, but really, if you look back at Gundam SEED Destiny, you'll find that Lunamaria does seem like she tends to follow after the really skilled and powerful pilots, while she herself often boasts about how she had earned her place among her friends and sometimes even questions whether or not she is doing what's right or if she really deserves to be doing something, like before she first piloted the Impulse. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that Luna's usually very confident in herself, but when you hear her saying that she had earned her red uniform so much, you can't help but feel that way about a character.**_

 _ **That aside, for all you fans who had been asking for him for so long, look at this! Omega Supreme has arrived on the scene in something other than a flashback! Yeah, it was something of a last minute decision to include him, but considering what was going to be coming, it made sense that the Autobots would want to revive one of their most powerful warriors. Too bad the moment was soured by the news that the 'Cons are on the attack. Well, you can't win 'em all, right?**_

 _ **Also, I hope you've all noticed the return of the Teletran I Intel Reports, and if you'll look back at the last few chapters, starting with "Another Armada", you'll find I've added similar reports to those chapters as well, so feel free to go back and read those if you want to.**_

 _ **So that's a wrap on Lunamaria and Crosshairs' fun, and next chapter, we'll be heading over to the Gundam timeline that we all know to be the main timeline for the Gundam franchise, and the same universe that spawned the Gundam franchise as a whole, and no, we will not be seeing Amuro Ray and the White Base, or Ra Cailum. No, this will actually feature one of the latest Gundam heroes and machine to come out of the Universal Century, and they'll be joined by the number one, fiery blonde from the Cosmic Era and her Autobot big sister. For more information, let's go Onto the Preview!...**_

 ** _As the heroes left in the main universe find themselves facing an all-out assault from the Decepticon on all fronts, Cagalli and Arcee are found exploring a world of Gundams with a few familiar faces. Just how much like the two that they know in another lifetime are these alternate doppelgangers like, and what sort of powers can this strange, white machine with a long, single horn possess? Is it possible that the two are even able to do something to help here, or is this universe doomed to walk a path of destruction that Cagalli and Arcee had helped their universe avoid for so long. Next time on Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 26: Lioness of Possibility** ** _. Witness the dawning of a new century for another universe, Diamond Akatsuki!_**

 ** _Heh, see what I did there with the title?_**

 ** _Yzak: Yeah, real clever. Almost as clever as how you plan on having one of the last chapters of this arc acting as a..._**

 ** _AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits control]_**

 ** _Yzak: [Suddenly gets blasted with Force Lightning while the sound of various lightsabers igniting reach everyone's ears] Oh hell no. [looks to see the central heroes from every Star Wars movie or series from Anakin, to Luke, to Han Solo, to Ashoka, to Ezra, to really every other major character ready to attack him, and immediately starts running while screaming like a little girl]_**

 ** _AN: Did he really think that saying something here at the end would save him or something?  
_**

 ** _Dearka: Yep._**

 ** _AN: Okay, if this keeps up, I'm going to start worrying that doing this to him so much might cause him to start loosing some brain cells or something...just a little though. Anyways..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	26. Lioness of Possibility

_**AN: Okay, this has got to be one of THE longest chapters I have ever written up until now, period. And that's just one of the big reasons as to why it took so long to finish this chapter. Another reason was trying to really figure out just the right way to make it all work while making sure it didn't end up too long. Not sure how much I succeeded in the case of the latter, though, all things considered.**_

 _ **Athrun: Any other reasons we should be aware of for the delay in updates?**_

 _ **AN: Yeah, not gonna lie, part of it is because lately I've become a bit...what's the word I'm looking for? Disillusioned, unenthusiastic, something that says unable to really draw the energy and desire to write chapters for this story? Either way, after writing this series for well over a year now, almost non-stop, ALMOST being the operative word there, I've had a hard time keeping most of my focus on finishing this story and really getting into writing it. It's not writer's block or anything like that, I know what I want to write for just about each chapter, I just don't feel as enthusiastic about writing it lately. I still intend to finish the series, make no mistake, this trilogy will be finished before the end of the year, but it might take a bit longer than everyone's probably used to the stories in this series being finished.**_

 ** _Ultra Magnus: And what's the other part of the reason?_**

 ** _AN: Blame the superheroes. There's a lot of hype going for them lately, and I've recently had quite the influx of ideas for various superhero stories, both in terms of crossovers and standard stuff, some of which you can learn about by seeing my profile page under the section that says "Future Projects", or just based off of the stories that I've updated the most in the recent months._**

 ** _Wheeljack: Ya mind giving us some ideas of what's been running through that head of yours lately in regards to those new story ideas?_**

 ** _AN: Sure if you really want to hear that noise._**

 ** _Everyone other than AN: We do._**

 ** _AN: Alright, alright. Well, two of which you can see on my profile, stories that I'll be calling Avatar: The Last Avengers and Avengers Academy, the former of which I'm sure you can figure out for yourselves, and the latter being a kind of MARVEL AU that's based of the mobile app game of the same name. I've also got a couple of different ideas for a Spider-Man story thanks to some of the work and planning I've put into my Justice Marvel story, one being a crossover between Spider-Man and the Arrow-Verse and the other being a crossover between Spider-Man and Batman Beyond, which is basically a kind of possible future for the Justice Marvel story line, but not the actual future. I've also had a couple of ideas for a crossover between Iron Man: Armored Adventures and Spectacular Spider-Man. Loved both of those series._**

 ** _Add those in with the ideas I've had for other types of stories like a Star Wars and Transformers crossover, my next Kingdom Hearts story which, in a way is like a sequel to my first one, Keyblades of Future Past, and the ideas I've had for other Kingdom Hearts stories, and well...yeah, I think you can all see why I'd have a hard time focusing specifically on a story like this one._**

 ** _Everyone other than AN: O.O_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, I had a feeling you'd all react like that, so while you're reeling at the vast intricacies and twisting, endless corridors that are my mind and imagination, I'm gonna let the readers get to the story, because like I mentioned earlier, this is a long one._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 26: Lioness of Possibility**

 **Location: Cybertron**

Despite all their preparations for the impending Decepticon attack, none of the Autobots were ready for when it finally came, but that was only due to the suddenness of the attack's beginning. It was almost as though they had come out of nowhere when they appeared, and as a result the 'Bots were all scrambling to defensive positions in order to fend them off. Thankfully, Spartan had been running a check of the defensive lines when the attack hit, so he was able to help them get organized soon enough, for what little good it did. Aside from the massive scorns of Predacon drones, there were also various Insecticons raining down on them as well, and they were all being led by none other than Spartan's old enemy, Cyclops and his team. The Insecticon leaders, Hardshell, Sharpshot, and Kickback were more than happy to focus their attention and that of their swarms on the numerous Autobot soldiers that made up Cybertron's defensive lines, but it quickly became clear that Cyclops and Roadkill were more focused on Spartan and his team than anyone else, something that Spartan was actually very grateful for if he were to be honest.

"After all these years, I will finally end you for good, Spartan," Cyclops promised.

"I've heard it before, Cyclops, and yet, I'm still standing strong along with my Autobot brothers and sister," Spartan reminded his old enemy as the two clashed their weapons against one another.

"That will change today," Cyclops roared in promise before he delivered a powerful head butt to Spartan's head, knocking the Autobot commander back and nearly into Boomstick, who just barely managed to evade Roadkill's attack.

Spartan's optics instantly narrowed at Cyclops for the 'Con nearly causing him to lose one of his own men, and he immediately charged forward again as he shouted, "YOU DIE TODAY!"

Needless to say, this was just one battle in the chaos that had erupted on Cybertron during this Decepticon attack, and it was quickly becoming clear that the Autobots' mortal enemies were starting to gain some ground until a massive, gold and red ship suddenly arrived on the scene and opened fire on the 'Cons with many large guns. The Autobots quickly recognized the ship as Omega Supreme's vehicle mode, and instantly cheered with joy at seeing the titan had arrived at last, but their celebrations were all kept short as they were soon turning their attention back to the battle at hand, some of them never knowing that Ratchet and Nicol were working feverously to try and bring Omega back to full fighting strength while he fought.

"Tell me some good news," Nicol pleaded with Ratchet as he crawled out of another console that he had been working inside of in an attempt to restart Omega's transformation capabilities.

"I wish I could," Ratchet grumbled irritably. "Even after all that rewiring and double checking the connections to the energon pathways, Omega's T-Cog is still not receiving power for some reason."

"Energon breach detected near fuel pumps. Possibility of problem's cause: highly likely," Omega informed the two.

"I'll go check that out," Nicol stated.

"Just be careful," Ratchet warned. "Remember, your suit may protect you from the harmful effects that energon has on organic matter, but even it has a limit, so try not to get too much of it on you."

Nicol just nodded in response to Ratchet's request and hurried off to do his job, silently praying that the others were holding out better with the battles that they were currently facing at the moment.

* * *

 **Location: Velocitron**

Hot Shot would be lying if he were to say that he did not wish he were able to fly right now, because considering how many Decepticon aerial forces they were currently facing, it would certainly be of great help. It also did not help that the likes of Slipstream and Cyclonus were currently leading the Decepticon and Predacon drone forces, and when you added in the fact Ransack was leading the ground forces attacking the speed planet, it would be easy to understand why everyone was more than a little irritated. They were all extremely thankful that Silverbolt and the Aerialbots had been sent here to help them, but even then, they were just five flyers, so it would be easy to see why most thought that it was not making a very great difference.

As Hot Shot continued firing his weapons at the Decepticon forces that were bombarding Velocitron, Override eventually came racing over to him while evading enemy fire with a speed and skill that was truly befitting of her before she finally transformed to robot mode and started returning fire with her own blaster. "Jeez, you'd think that the 'Cons had sent their entire compliment of flyers just to get at us," the former leader of Velocitron commented.

"Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me, Override," Hot Shot smirked in reply, happy to see that she was still in one piece despite the battle raging around them.

Override said nothing in response to Hot Shot's comment, beyond giving him a smirk of her own, and she quickly turned her attention back to the 'Cons that had dared to put her people in danger. She might not technically be Velocitron's leader anymore, but she was still a major leading figure, and she would be slagged before she let anyone bring any harm to her world and the people who lived there, no matter who it was that threatened them.

* * *

 **Location: Nebulous**

Elita One was really not having a good day. That was the most overly simplified way to put things for her at the moment, because ever since that anomaly had opened up and sucked Optimus and the others away to who knew where, she was in a very bad mood. She had just gotten her sparkmate back from the Decepticons' clutches not too long ago, so having him torn from her arms again had left her in quite the sour mood, and the Decepticon attack that the Demolisher, Airachnid, and Zarak were currently leading along with a scorn of HorseMan mobile suits and the rest of the Hive Headmasters were not helping to improve her mood in the slightest. "Show them no mercy! Take no prisoners," Elita shouted.

No one intended to argue with Elita One, be they the Headmasters of Nebulos, or the Autobots that she had brought with her to the planet, though it was only partly because they were afraid of what she would do to them if they disagreed. But when things escalated to the point where both Scorpnok and Fortress Maximus had started battling it out once again, even Elita had to question the wisdom of those orders she had given before shaking it off and resuming the battle with everything they had.

* * *

 **Location: Junkion**

For what seemed to be the first time in his life, Blurr was actually annoyed, but it was not because of the Constructicons who were leading the charge on Junkion, while being accompanied by HorseMan mobile suits and Terrorcons. No, Blurr's irritation was actually due to having to deal with both the Star Seekers and the Junkions' way of talking. He was constantly having to guess the meanings behind the Junkions' various quotes and the pirate speak that Thundertron's crew insisted on using when they replied to his orders, and it all made him wonder if this was how everyone else felt whenever he was speaking to them in his hyper-speed speech. Whatever the case may be, such things could wait for now, as they had a world to defend, even if it was made up of garbage.

At one point during the battle, Wreck-Gar found himself matching blows with a HorseMan mobile suit that was easily matching him in close combat. Though Wreck-Gar's make-shift battle staff would not typically hold up against the beam saber his opponent was using, it was still holding together surprisingly well, and if he ever lost a weapon while fighting, he was always able to draw another one from the various spare parts and junk in his trunk, but all this simply meant that the two were caught in a stalemate. That eventually changed when Thundertron caught sight of the Junkion leader's troubles and turned away from his own match against a Terrorcon so that he could fire a quick shot from his blaster in an attempt to aid Wreck-Gar, only to have the weapon pulled from his servos by the Terrorcon he was fighting.

"Oi! My pistol," Thundertron snapped at the Terrorcon as he snatched his weapon back and then whapped the Terrorcon on the head with the butt of said weapon. He then turned around and fired a single shot at the two, dueling warriors, which both easily evaded, but the HorseMan mobile suit ended up unable to react fast enough in order to either block or evade Wreck-Gar's subsequent finishing attack, which knocked him out of the fight.

"Thank ye Jack," Wreck-Gar shouted in a sailor tone of his own, his quote easily identifiable to any who knew their pirate movies.

"My pleasure, mate, now what say we said the rest of these blokes down to the hangar, savvy," Thundertron said.

"Aye captain," Wreck-Gar nodded, and the two were soon back-to-back as they resumed fighting again.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

While battles against the Decepticons were raging all across the various world that the Autobots had visited, none of them could quite compare to the battles that were taking place on the home world of humanity, as evidenced by the fact that battles were raging both in space and on the surface of the planet. Jazz, Kisaka, and DaCosta had all tried their best to keep the 'Cons from breaking through the defensive lines that they had set up in orbit of Earth, but even the best of shields reached a point where they started to crack, and the Decepticons did not hesitate for a second to use that crack in order to get a number of their stronger forces through. Galvatron was gladly leading all of his forces in the assault on Planet Earth with Le Creuset by his side and with all the remainder of the Decepticon forces under their command, save Starscream's followers, it was easy to see how things on Earth were quickly going badly for the defenders of peace.

None of the battles that were raging on Earth were more intense than the one that was happening just outside the research facility in Scotland, and this was not just because it was the battlefield where the Dinobots, the true Predacons, Leobreaker and his forces, and the Joule Team were fighting either. It was also because of how important the facility they were fighting to protect was, because everyone defending Earth all knew full well that if they lost that facility, there would be a strong chance that they would never get their lost friends back home. That was just one more reason for these warriors to fight back against the Decepticons as hard as they could. As he looked out over the battlefield while holding his own against whatever opponent attempted to engage him, Bumblebee could not help but groan in frustration at everything they were having to do in order to hold their defensive lines as best as they could, while also having to hear from Fixit and Blaster about all the various requests from their forces that were asking for any kind of support they could spare.

"Fixit, Blaster, for the last time, tell them I'm sorry, but we're spread too thin as it is. The only advice I can have you give them is to tell them to persevere, hold on for as long as possible, and don't give up until the last drop of energon is gone," Bumblebee informed the two communications handlers.

 _"Understood sir,"_ the two instantly replied, and Bumblebee was finally allowed to bring his full attention back to his own fight.

"Damn it," Yzak growled as he fired the Blu Duel's guns at anything that attempted to get close to either him, the facility, or his allies. "Why are they focusing the brunt of their forces here on Earth?"

"Considering what this world represents to Galvatron and Unicron, I think the better question would be why wouldn't they focus so many of their forces here," Dearka reasoned as he fired a barrage of missiles and energon blasts at a horde of Terrorcons from the Verde Buster.

"Either way, we're not just going to let them destroy everything we've managed to protect and build for all these years," Shiho commented as she flew around the battlefield in the Rosso Aegis' mobile armor mode, firing at any HorseMan mobile suits and airborne Predacon drones she came across.

"Like that really needed to be said," Heine shrugged in response to that before firing a barrage from both the Savior's arm blasters and Plasma Beam Cannons.

On the other side of the battlefield, Predaking and Grimlock found themselves standing side by side as they met a variety of opponents head-on, should any of the opposing 'Cons be foolish enough to even attempt approaching them that is, and as the battle continued, Predaking found a smirk reaching his face. "In all the battles I had fought until now, none has made me feel more alive than this has," Predaking admitted. "To be fighting for a true cause that goes beyond any selfish desires along with warriors who are both mighty and honorable…this is a battle that my brethren and I live for."

"Me, Grimlock hope Predaking not thinking that this change things between us," Grimlock playfully growled in response to this as he slashed through a Predacon drone that tried to charge him.

"Never even crossed my processor," Predaking revealed with an even wider smirk. "I look forward to the day when you and I finally settle which of us is truly the stronger one, but until then, we fight together as rivals and equals."

"Me, Grimlock like that plan, so Predacons and Dinobots kick butt," Grimlock roared as he and Predaking both assumed their bestial modes with a roar, and immediately charged in for another round along with their allies.

While the two bestial Transformers seemed to continue getting a real kick out of the battle they were facing, from where he was watching inside the facility, Banagher could not help but feel like he was completely useless at the moment. That feeling was shared by a number of the people in the research facility, such as Ironhide, Sai, and even Feldt, but in the case of Banagher, who had spent a good deal of his life fighting to protect someone precious to him, it was even more so. Thankfully, Erica was able to keep everyone on task for the moment so that their research and attempts at bringing their lost comrades back would not be in vain, but even so, Banagher could not help but feel like he would be able to do more out on the battlefield than he was doing here, and that led him to make a decision he had not thought he would ever have to make.

"Banagher, could you hand me those notes on the Ground Bridge modifications that were made to…Where'd he go," Erica asked when she turned to the young man with a request only to find him missing from where he was just a few minutes ago. After looking around and not seeing him for another few minutes, Erica found herself praying that the young man was not about to do what she was thinking he had decided to do, because she knew that the worst case scenario would lead to Audrey being heartbroken.

* * *

 **Location: Wherever Cagalli and Arcee Are**

Many have come to fear the wrath of an angry Cagalli, and with good reason considering the kind of power and skills the blonde possesses, but at the moment, many would probably think that they had not seen her really angry until now. Her anger was well-founded of course, because not only were she and Arcee stranded in parts unknown to either of them, but they were separated from Athrun, Kira, Optimus, and all the others after they were sucked into the anomaly that had come from out of nowhere. Add in the fact that she had to leave the Diamond Akatsuki behind in order for her to effectively help Arcee investigate their new surroundings, and Cagalli was likely to completely erupt if it were not for her many years spent as a world leader and the fact that Arcee was there to help her keep a cool head. That did not mean that her mood was all that pleasant at the moment though.

"So to recap, we're stranded in Haumea knows where, we can't reach Athrun, Optimus, Bee, Kira, or anyone else for that matter for some bizarre reason, and to top it all off, the only thing we've been able to figure out about our current location is that we're in some massive space colony that neither of us ever even knew existed. Do I have all that right," Cagalli irritably grumbled under her breath to Arcee, hoping to make sure she did not give off the impression she was talking to herself despite the fact that her current helmet perfectly hid her face from view.

"Well you left out the fact that we discovered that the timestamp on all the news articles and historical files we found reads as Universal Century or U.C., but yeah that's pretty much everything," Arcee replied as calmly as possible. Admittedly, she was just as upset about all of this as her little sister was, but years of serving with the Autobots on the frontlines had long since taught her how to control her emotions, at least a little better than she used to be able to. "Are you sure it was a good idea to leave the Diamond Akatsuki behind like that," Arcee then asked.

"Well we didn't exactly have a choice in the matter," Cagalli pointed out. "Not only would a mobile suit flying around inside a colony raise a few warning flags, but the Diamond Akatsuki's vehicle mode would stick out just as much since the thing turns into a sea plane. You don't really see any of those inside a space colony after all."

"Fair enough. I just wanted to be sure you knew what you were doing," Arcee admitted with a mental shrug as she slowed to a stop at an intersection with a red light for them. "But I do have to ask one other thing; where did you get that outfit from?"

Arcee was referring to the fact that aside from the motorcycle helmet that Arcee always seemed to have for any passengers she would be carrying, Cagalli had changed out of her pilot's suit and into a pair of grey slacks and a black coat over a red shirt. It had not escaped Cagalli's notice that the outfit she was currently wearing was very reminiscent if not almost exactly the same as the outfit she had worn when she snuck away and onto Heliopolis when she first met Kira so long ago, but to be honest, she did not really care that much about such details at the moment. "I had it stored in the cockpit of my Gundam in case of an emergency where I needed to go undercover or do something that would require me to not be recognized," Cagalli explained. "I'm just glad that we can all change into our pilot suits with a push of a button nowadays, because otherwise, I don't think I'd be able to change back into it at a moment's notice should we need the Diamond Akatsuki."

"Well let's hope it doesn't come to that," Arcee remarked just as the light turned green and they started moving again, until they both pulled over to the side of the road to see that a police line had been set up around an area of a park where a maintenance mobile suit had apparently crash landed. Looking over the area though, it was clear to both girls that there was more to this little crash landing than there appeared to be. "There's no way this much security would be around a random, maintenance suit crash."

"Could mean that someone wanted this to serve as a distraction or that the pilot was in a serious hurry for some reason and needed to take the suit without getting proper clearance," Cagalli continued for her big sister figure, getting a hidden smirk from Arcee due to how impressed she was with the blonde's analysis in response. "The only question now is what happened to the pilot?"

"Hard to say, but we shouldn't let ourselves get too distracted. We've got more important things to worry about," Arcee reminded Cagalli. "We have to find some type of communications array that we can use to get in touch with any of the other Autobots or our other friends so that we can get back home, and fast."

"You're right. Whatever's going on here, it's not our problem," Cagalli nodded as she allowed Arcee to pull away from where they had stopped. Even though she had said that though, Cagalli could not help but gain a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach after she looked back at the crash site, and it was not helped at all by the fact that a black car suddenly left the area as well in a way that made it seem like the driver was in a hurry.

* * *

A few hours had passed since the two female heroes of Earth and Cybertron had left the crash site, and in that time, they had found absolutely nothing that would help them get into contact with their friends, but a small stop at an information center did allow them to get a bit more information on what was considered to be recent history in this Universal Century, and what they discovered was that there were not that many differences between the history they knew and what they read about the history as the people of this colony knew it. The major highlights of the history that they read about were moments known as the One Year War, the Gryps Conflict, and the First and Second Neo Zeon Wars, each of which were all brought to an end by a group with a mobile suit that bore the name of Gundam. During her time looking through the Universal Century, Cagalli could not help but find a few similarities between this history and the one she knew, such as with the prejudices between the people who lived on Earth and those who were born or just lived in space, along with the prejudices between most humans and the new breed of humans in this timeline known as Newtypes, who were often used as living weapons, if what she read was to be believed. Combine that with how some of the earlier mobile suit technology was similar to that of some of the more recent mass produce mobile suit technology they used in the Cosmic Era, and Cagalli was beginning to feel like it would have been easier to find things that the Cosmic Era did not have in common with the people who lived in this Universal Century.

In the end, all of these discoveries all led Cagalli and Arcee to one, inescapable conclusion about their current location. "An alternate reality," Cagalli gasped in questioning.

"It's the only thing that really makes sense, seeing as while these people are human and clearly draw their origins from Earth before moving into space, there's no indication that they have very many similarities to what we know. Yes, they have mobile suits, space colonies, and even Gundams, but then there's what they don't have. There's no Orb Union, no Sol Federation, no PLANTs, no indication of any contacts with any alien life, let alone Cybertronians, and not even one single person that we know of from back home that could likely help us get back," Arcee reasoned as she continued to drive through the now darkened streets of the colony, which served as a clear indication that the colony was now in a nighttime status.

"So then what are we supposed to do? Just keep flying under the radar, twiddling our thumbs, and hope that we don't get discovered before everyone back home figures out what happened to us," Cagalli asked, rhetorically.

"Unless something changes in the next few minutes that would force us into action, I'm afraid that is just about all we can do," Arcee sadly replied, and no sooner had she said the words did something that would force their hand did indeed end up happening starting with a loud explosion suddenly erupting nearby. Upon hearing said explosion, Arcee immediately skidded to a hard stop, forcing Cagalli to tighten her grip on the handlebars until the Autobot had stopped completely. Once they had stopped, Cagalli looked towards the source of the explosion and quickly spotted a group of mobile suits battling it out with one another. On the side of the battle that held the advantage in numbers were what was clearly a group of mass-produce type mobile suits that all bore a dark indigo color with dark red visors, a beam-type weapon mounted on one arm in addition to the beam rifles, and a beam saber, while on the other side was a single machine with what seemed to be four wings, and from the fact that a number of small pods seemed to be racing around the area, the two could only assume that the quad-wing machine had the capability of utilizing a bit-type weapon like the DRAGOON System.

"Mobile suits battling it out inside of a space colony. Where have I seen this before," Cagalli drawled at the sight before her and her Autobot Guardian.

"Save the sarcasm for later, Little Sister. Right now, we've got to get out of here and get you back to the Diamond Akatsuki before either group that those idiots belong to find it," Arcee stated, and she was soon putting metal to the pedal the minute that she received an affirmative nod from the blonde. When one of the mobile suits suddenly crashed down in front of them, Arcee was quick to react and immediately diverted her path so that she would be racing up a makeshift ramp that had formed from some debris due to the sudden attack that was now taking place. While she was in the air, Arcee quickly transformed to robot mode after seeing that she would not make it over otherwise, throwing Cagalli into the air when she did, but thankfully, Arcee was able to catch the blonde in a safe, strong grip as she spun and flipped over the downed mobile suit that was likely to explode at any second. The minute her feet hit the ground again, Arcee easily threw Cagalli back while transforming back to vehicle mode again, allowing the blonde to land safely on the seat of her motorcycle mode as they continued racing back to where they had hidden the Diamond Akatsuki.

"Please don't do that again," Cagalli requested in a shaky voice, showing just how terrified she was by Arcee's little stunt.

"I make no promises," Arcee easily replied.

Soon after, they had the gold and diamond mobile suit in their sights, prompting Arcee to come skidding to a stop once again the minute they were close enough, allowing Cagalli to dismount from the motorcycle Autobot and run over to her machine while activating her pilot suit with the control on her belt. As soon as Cagalli had climbed into and activated the Gundam that carried her father's legacy, she opened a private comm. channel to Arcee and said, "I'll fly ahead and make sure the path is clear. Think you'll be able to keep up?"

"Did you forget who you're talking to," Arcee rhetorically inquired in a confident tone, drawing a smile from the blonde in response. With that said, the two quickly departed, making a beeline for the exit that would lead them out into space.

The journey out of the colony was not an easy one, as Cagalli would often have to slow down a little to avoid getting hit by explosions and debris that were the result of the damage to the colony from the mobile suit battle they had just seen, and the subsequent explosions that had followed, one of which could only have been caused by a shot from a ship's guns did not really bolster their confidence on whether or not the massive space settlement would remain intact for much longer. In the end, they eventually managed to make it out through a combined use of the Diamond Akatsuki's weapons and the two's ability to transform between alt and bipedal mode at a moment's notice, and when they finally laid eyes on the starry expanse of Space, they could not help but breathe sighs of relief. That was before the entrance to one of the colony's other space ports was suddenly blasted open, allowing the quad-wing mobile suit they saw earlier, and a large, white mobile suit with a long horn on its head to come bursting out, the quad-wing clearly being forced out of the colony by the white mobile suit.

Cagalli hated having to sit by and do nothing when there was a chance she could help, but given the fact that they did not know who was in the right at the moment, she knew that they had no choice but to do so. She soon gained a strong idea about who to help in the situation though, when the white, single-horned mobile suit suddenly ended up wide open to the quad-wing mobile suit's attacks, only to suddenly start glowing with a faint red light before some type of invisible sphere ended up deflecting the beam fire that had erupted from the bit-type weapons of the quad-wing machine. When the beam attacks finally ceased, several different points on the white machine suddenly started to unfold or perhaps even separate to expose glowing, pinkish-red armor beneath them, while its backpack unfolded and allowed a pair of white handles to extend upwards. The final change to the white machine took place on its head, which suddenly morphed into a familiar visage, which was quickly completed when its single horn split open into a yellow V-fin that was typically characteristic to machines that Arcee and Cagalli knew all too well.

"That machine is…" Arcee started to say in awe as they then watched the altered machine draw one of the beam sabers that were now available for use.

"A Gundam," Cagalli finished in equal surprise.

The two were so in shock by the fact that the most recent addition to the battle had suddenly morphed into a Gundam that they could do nothing more than watch as it charged towards its current opponent, destroying a few of the bit-type weapons with a few swings of its sword that were almost too quick to follow, and attempted to engage the quad-winged mobile suit in combat, and the only thing that the green and black machine seemed able to do at that moment was either attempt to block the white mobile suit's strikes or evade them, while all the other forces in the area looked on in what they could only assume was an equal amount of shock and awe. Eventually, the quad-wing's pilot seemed to regain themselves and armed their own beam saber before charging to meet the Gundam in combat, only this time it seemed to be lashing out like some type of wild animal. Still, the two machines could be considered evenly matched at that point, and a part of Cagalli could not help but feel like she were watching a battle between Athrun and Kira, Optimus and Galvatron, or even Kira and Rau Le Creuset as she looked on at the two combatants. As incredible and spectacular as the sight before them was, neither Arcee or Cagalli were planning on kidding themselves into thinking that they would not have to interfere in the battle at some point; they were just not sure when exactly that point would arrive.

They found out soon enough, as a new barrage of beam fire suddenly lit up the battlefield, signaling the arrival of a number of deep blue colored mobile suits of various designs, and all of them seemed to bare similar markings to the green, quad-winged machine that was battling the Gundam at the moment. Seeing these new arrivals were giving the recently revealed Gundam a hard time instantly prompted Cagalli and Arcee into action, with the blonde taking point as her big sister figure started giving orders. "I'll try to take out as many of these new arrivals as I can. You backup that Gundam and try to get the pilot to fly over to the nearby ship that all the others seem to be heading towards," Arcee told Cagalli.

"You've got it. I'll try to cover your approach for as long as I can," Cagalli replied, and with that, the two were soon flying into battle as well.

Their approach did not go unnoticed for long, at least in the case of Cagalli, but seeing as her machine was shinning gold and diamond, that did not really come as a great surprise to either of them. It did, however, play to Cagalli's advantage, as the glimmer from her machine's armor left the enemy pilot's disoriented just long enough for her to launch an attack using the Diamond Akatsuki's DRAGOONs along with the High-Energy Beam Cannons, instantly taking out at least one of the attacking enemies, much to everyone's surprise. The shock of the enemy pilots that had followed her initial attack allowed Cagalli to arm the Diamond Akatsuki's arm blasters and open fire as she drew closer to the white Gundam, suddenly feeling a bit nostalgic as she remembered doing something similar when she met up with Kira for the second time in the desert so many years ago. "Attention, pilot of this mobile suit. If you can hear me, please do exactly as I say, assuming you want to live," Cagalli called out. She waited a few minutes for an answer, but when she received none, she figured that the pilot was likely still surprised by her sudden appearance, so she carried on with what she was saying. "Please retreat to the nearby ship while you can. My friend and I will try to cover you, but we can only do so much, so hurry!"

The pilot of the other Gundam seemed to understand what the blonde was saying, as he eventually turned towards the nearby white ship that was situated a short distance away and quickly rocketed towards it, with Cagalli following as closely behind it as she could, firing her machine's arm blasters and beam cannons as she went. Cagalli was amazed that she was able to hold her own for as long as she did before she was eventually overwhelmed, for even the Diamond Akatsuki's reflective armor was not able to protect her from every beam attack that was thrown at her, and it was completely ineffective against any missile attacks that were fired on her as well. At one point, Cagalli found herself forced to go into SEED Burst mode in an attempt to even things up a little, and while it did help her to fight off the various enemies for a short time, it did not make much difference in the long run. When the quad-wing mobile suit suddenly charged her, Cagalli found herself reacting on instinct, and for a brief moment, she could have sworn she heard a faint ringing before a barrier similar to the one that the white Gundam had used earlier deflected the attacks that came from the enemy machine's bit-type weapons. Shaking off any thoughts about what that sound could have been, Cagalli quickly called out, "Arcee, if you're going to make a move, now would be a really good time!"

From where she had been waiting, Arcee was able to catch sight of what had happened just before the Diamond Akatsuki had deflected the beam blasts from the bit weapons with an invisible shield, and she could only give a quiet gasp of shock when she saw the diamond parts of Cagalli's mobile suit suddenly start to gain a faint glow similar to the red parts of the morphing Gundam's armor. It had only lasted for a minute, but it was still long enough for Arcee to have registered it at all. She filed this matter away for later though, as Cagalli's sudden call for help brought her back to their current situation, and so, Arcee took that as her cue to roll out. Using some of the nearby debris, Arcee was easily able to race forward towards the battling mobile suits in her vehicle mode, and then launch herself into the vast expanse before transforming and performing a quick, fluid flip that ended with one of her legs extended forward, ready to deliver a powerful kick to one of the attacking mobile suits. Her strike easily landed on its intended target, and Arcee was then able to arm her blasters so that she could deliver the finishing blow that would destroy the enemy machines completely in a brilliant explosion. The explosion and force of fire from her blasters may have ended up pushing Arcee back through the zero-gravity environment of space, but it ended up working quite well to her advantage, as it allowed her to end up floating right alongside the Diamond Akatsuki and remain there as she continued firing, each of them slowly moving away from the battlefield and towards the ship that the white mobile suit was heading towards.

Just when the enemy units seemed like they were going to attempt another charge, they seemed to pause mid-way and then turn around in a full retreat, with the quad-wing firing out a barrage of beam blasts to discourage them from following, instantly telling the two defenders of Earth, Cybertron, and the rest of the galaxy that they had likely received some type of return signal that neither of them had noticed. Even though they were a bit wary of how the battle was clearly ending, neither of them were willing to look a gift horse in the mouth and just released breaths that they did not know they were holding, only to pause for a moment when they noticed that they were receiving a transmission from both the nearby ship and an approaching mobile armor, which they could both clearly tell had the capability to change into a mobile suit.

 _"Attention, unidentified machines. If you can hear this message, identify yourselves, your affiliations, and your combat objectives,"_ the person on the other end of the transmission demanded, instantly getting Cagalli's blood boiling at the tone the person was taking while confusing her just as much as Arcee at the fact that they did not seem to recognize either of them.

Thinking that she should worry about that later, Cagalli quickly replied, "This is Cagalli Yula Athha Zala, Co-Chief Representative of the Orb Union. As the leader of a sovereign nation, I am requesting that my comrade and I be allowed to board your vessel at once."

The person on the other end of the transmission was silent for a moment before replying, _"Permission granted. We just need identification of the pilots of the other two machines."_

Cagalli's face quickly scrunched up in confusion when she heard that response, but she quickly realized that they probably thought that Arcee was another mobile suit and that the mystery Gundam was with them, so she immediately clarified, "The machine next to my own is not a mobile suit, so there is no pilot to identify. As for the machine that had previously morphed into a Gundam, I know just as much about whom the pilot is or its affiliation, but I am certain that there may be a chance that he or she requires medical attention."

 _"Understood,"_ the person contacting them replied, and the mobile suit quickly changed direction to retrieve the white Gundam, which had now changed back into its original state and apparently deactivated while allowing Cagalli to fly both the Diamond Akatsuki and Arcee over to the nearby ship, each wondering just what they had gotten themselves into now.

After another minute of flying in silence, Arcee finally spoke over the private comm. frequency that was used amongst both the Autobots and the Gundam pilots in a quiet tone, whispering, "You just can't seem to visit a space colony without it being attacked, can you Little Sister?"

Cagalli knew what Arcee was referring to when she mentioned that, and just smirked in reply while replying in a quiet tone of her own, "Hey, I've been to plenty of space colonies without any trouble before. This kind of thing hasn't happened since the thefts at Armory One."

"Yet here we are once again," Arcee pointed out with a smirk of her own, gaining a quiet laugh from Cagalli a moment later, which she briefly joined in on until they were at the ship's docking bay doors.

* * *

Almost seconds after Cagalli and Arcee had come aboard the white vessel, which they soon learned was known as the _Nahel Argama_ , the two were instantly on full guard around everyone in the hangar, and it had very little to do with how a lot of the soldiers were quick to aim their weapons at them the minute that the Diamond Akatsuki and Arcee stepped into the hangar, or the fact that they were practically ordering Cagalli to out of her machine, which she had thus far refused to do. In point of fact, most of it was due to the fact that so many of them seemed more concerned with the white, long-horned Gundam that now occupied a berth of its own in the ship's hangar, and neither Cagalli or Arcee needed to have experienced such matters in the past to know that it was likely involved in some sort of major conspiracy, especially when a large, civilian man in a fancy business suit suddenly came bumbling into the hangar acting like he owned everything in the place. With all of this in mind, it was actually a great wonder that Arcee had managed to restrain herself from acting out against their hosts for as long as she had up until now, especially given how often they had referred to her as a "mindless automaton," which easily got under her plating every time, but there was no denying that both Arcee and Cagalli were getting close to their breaking points with these people.

These reasons, along with the sense of caution she was currently feeling in regards to their current situation, all played a part in why Cagalli had yet to step out of her machine, despite the requests of their hosts, and while she was a bit relieved that they did not seem to make her coming out of the Diamond Akatsuki a priority, she was still somewhat annoyed that they were opting to focus on the white, morphing Gundam that had played a huge part in fighting off what she could hear everyone calling a terrorist group known as the Sleeves. At the moment though, the blonde was more annoyed with the soldier that was arguing with the corporate business man about what their next move should be from here, because it was clear as day that the fatso had no real understanding of military tactics, given how he was suggesting they head in a direction that would leave them completely exposed to another attack should the enemy return. All sense of annoyance vanished along with the argument though when the tech crew finally managed to disengage the lock on the white Gundam and its hatch started to open up, revealing the pilot inside. Cagalli could not see who it was inside the Gundam from where she was at the moment, and since she was attempting to give the appearance of a non-sentient machine for the moment, Arcee was forced to try and get a glimpse out of the corner of her optics, and even then it was difficult until the pilot was finally pulled out by the people in front of the cockpit and revealed to everyone. When the two finally did see the pilot though, they both let out silent, astonished gasps at the sight of the person in question, each of which were mixed with a sense of recognition.

"No…It can't be," Cagalli whispered in her continued awe, for there, lying unconscious in the arms of the people who had been trying to open the white Gundam, was a young man that was the spitting image of Banagher Links, right to the point that he could easily be Banagher's twin brother.

"What is this? Why is some child in the Unicorn," the large man demanded.

"Do you really think we know the answer to that," the military commander that Cagalli and Arcee overheard being called Daguza. "Besides, in case you haven't noticed Mister Vist, it's not like we can ask him right now."

"Well then wake him up and get the answers out of him," Vist demanded, and that was the straw that finally broke the camel's back for Cagalli, which quickly became evident when she finally opened her own machine's hatch and sprung out of the machine so that she was flying directly over to where the group was standing with an energon pistol pointing directly at the unreasonable fat man, much to his and everyone else's shock.

"Are you really this stupid, or are you just so selfish that you're willing to sacrifice the health and welfare of a young man just so you can get what you want," Cagalli demanded angrily as she practically shoved her weapon into the man's face. "This kid needs a doctor, not an interrogation!" Before the blonde could go any further in her rant, the sound of a gun clicking drew her attention over to Daguza, who had drawn his own pistol so that it was aimed at her. While Cagalli was a bit concerned about this, she had been in enough political meetings and battlefields to know how to show as little fear as possible, and simply warned the soldier, "If you plan to shoot me then go right ahead. I can guarantee that you'll be facing charges for threatening and assaulting a world leader later on, and that's assuming you survive dealing with both my brother and my husband."

"Bold words, young lady, but I'd be more concerned about your claims if I didn't already know that there's serious flaw in what you've told us," Daguza revealed. "We looked into the identity you gave us, and not only is there no record of a Cagalli Yula Athha Zala, but the nation you named does not exist either. Now, just who are you, and what makes you think you can threaten a man like Alberto Vist, an executive of Anaheim Electronics?"

"I already told you who I am, and everything is the truth, just like the reason as to why you couldn't find anything on me and Orb is the truth, along with another reason why you shouldn't be threatening me," Cagalli calmly replied.

"And just what is that," Daguza inquired. "You're currently aboard a Londo Bell ship, and completely outnumbered by well-trained Federation troops of both ECOAS and Londo Bell."

"Maybe, but I'm the one who's currently wearing a suit that's bullet proof and who has you all outmatched simply because of the one thing that I have that you don't," Cagalli stated with a smile.

"And what would that be," Alberto nervously asked, seeing as he was the one being held at gunpoint by the blonde.

Cagalli's only response was to smirk as she glanced over to Arcee, which prompted the Autobot to smirk in knowing at what was coming immediately after the blonde spoke. "I have an Autobot."

While the blonde's answer initially drew confused looks from the people around her, those looks quickly changed to ones of awe and shock when Arcee suddenly sprang into action by quickly moving forward, arming one of her arm blasters so that she could aim it at the man who was currently threatening her little sister, and said, "I'm going to give you fair warning: I could easily blast a hole in this ship's hull with my blaster, and it's currently on its lowest setting, so I'd get that gun away from my little sister if I were you. Oh, and one more thing: if any of you call me a mindless automaton again, I will flatten the person in question beneath my pedes like a weak and starving Scraplet."

Everyone just stared at Arcee in awe for a minute before Daguza managed to regain himself and said, "Uh…I believe the young lady's suggested course of action is the wisest move at the current moment, so I suggest we get this young man to the ship's doctor quickly." Once his men had moved the Banagher look-a-like onto a stretcher so that they could safely move him to the infirmary, Daguza looked to Cagalli again and asked, "Where did you say that you and you're…friend were from again?"

Seeing that no one was aiming a weapon at her any longer, Cagalli took this opportunity to remove her helmet, shaking her head a little so that her hair was not a complete mess once her headwear was off, and replied, "Like I said, I'm one of the leaders of an island nation known as Orb, as well as the Sol Federation, but the reason why you haven't heard of it is because…well, that's the part that will likely sound crazy."

"Try me," Daguza requested.

"Cagalli and I believe we are currently in the wrong universe," Arcee stated.

That drew a shocked look from Daguza and everyone else who heard the Autobot warrior, most of which were still reeling at the fact that Arcee was intelligent at all, and at that moment, Cagalli and Arcee were both able to tell that they were about to have a very long talk with Daguza and a few other important people on this ship.

* * *

It was not until after Cagalli had finished telling Daguza and the _Nahel Argama_ 's command crew her and Arcee's story that she finally learned that the white morphing mobile suit was called the Unicorn Gundam, and that it's pilot did not just look like Banagher, but was actually called Banagher Links as well, and after finding the boy in the infirmary with his friends standing around him, the blonde was quickly met with the sight of a young woman the same age as this Banagher that was the spitting image of her friend Mineva. When the woman in question identified herself as Audrey Burne, Cagalli had little doubt that the name was actually just an alias that she was using to hide her true identity like the Mineva Lao Zabi of her universe had done before she finally came out of hiding three years ago, and still did amongst close, personal friends. She kept this belief to herself though, as she had learned through her brief study of Universal Century history that the Zabi family was not quite as noble here as they were back home for the most part, but she would not deny that it was made easier due to the shock of seeing an alternate version of both Audrey and Banagher in this universe, coupled with the shock of seeing that the latter had apparently just become a Gundam pilot.

It was not that she thought the Banagher of her universe could not be capable of being a Gundam pilot at all, she knew full well that the guy had some experience piloting a few mobile suits while he was keeping Audrey safe, but the fact that this alternate version had become a pilot so quickly and handled himself as well as he had out there was what really came as something of a shock to her. Of course, after talking with Daguza, Cagalli quickly learned that the Unicorn Gundam's secondary mode, the one in which it took on the form of a real Gundam, otherwise known as the Destroy Mode, had a feature that allowed the machine to react to the pilot's thoughts and instincts, so it helped her in figuring out why this Banagher doppelganger handled himself so well in his first mobile suit engagement like that. These were not really topics that had Cagalli's attention at the moment, though.

What really had most of her focus occupied was what had happened near the end of that previous battle when she thought she heard some type of ringing sound before a barrier had formed around the Diamond Akatsuki like the one that had formed around the Unicorn before it had transformed. Arcee had informed her the first moment they had to catch their breathes about what the Autobot had seen, but instead of helping Cagalli figure out what was going on, it only made her more confused. How could the Diamond Akatsuki have started glowing in a way that was similar to the Unicorn if the two machines were so vastly different in the way they were designed? Arcee had tried to say that despite being in another universe, there were plenty of indications that this universe was similar to theirs, despite the many differences that Cagalli found, but the blonde had argued against this as she revealed that she learned a few things about what went into the design of the Unicorn, including how it was outfitted with a special technology throughout its body known as a psyco-frame, which was unique to this universe, and known to cause a serious strain on a pilot's mental state at times, unless they were one of these Newtypes that they had heard about from both their limited studies and a few of the people they had talked to, so it just left them both with more questions than it did answers.

Cagalli was not entirely alone in her search for answers, though not for the same reasons as hers. It was clear as an empty area of Space that certain individuals of the ship's crew did not entirely believe the story that she and Arcee had told them, not that the pair of fierce, female warriors could really blame them for their skepticism, but there was just something about the suspicion that certain ones of those people that really bothered Cagalli, especially in the case of Alberto Vist. From a single glance at the man, it was obvious that he was probably thinking of ways that he could exploit Cagalli or Arcee in some way that would benefit him or the people that he worked for, much like the Seirans had once attempted to with Cagalli near the start of the Terrible Autobot Civil War, but that really just irked Cagalli more than it worried her. What really had her concerned were the suspicious looks she got from Daguza and the men of his team ever since Arcee had revealed herself. She tried to rationalize it as the instincts of a hardened soldier that had seen a lot of hardships and battlefields, but that did very little to ease her nerves, especially given the various looks he often sent in Audrey's direction every time he was in a room with her since their first encounter in the ship's infirmary.

These thoughts all ended up being put on the backburner of Cagalli's mind though when the ship suddenly shook under the force of an explosion. Since they were in a zero-gravity environment, Cagalli ended up being thrown off her feet and into the ceiling after the initial explosion due to the fact that she was not holding onto or tied down to anything at the time, but she quickly managed to regain her equilibrium and then push herself to a nearby comm. system in the wall in the hopes of getting some answers from the bridge. This hope was quickly dashed when she received no reply at all, indicating that the bridge had cut off non-essential inter-ship communications, and Cagalli let out an annoyed grunt before putting the receiver back in its place and pushing herself off the wall again so that she could find a way to help out anyone who needed it.

"Arcee, tell me you've gotten into the ship's comm. channels like you said you would by now," Cagalli pleaded after she tapped the Autobot comm. device in her ear.

 _"I had that done a couple of hours ago, actually, and I've been roaming the corridors in my Holo-Form since then,"_ Arcee informed the blonde with a tone of pride. _"We're definitely under attack by an enemy force, possibly another team from that group that was attacking before, but from what I've overheard from the bridge, the lead machine is either flying a very specialized unit or is a seriously skilled pilot."_

"Here's hoping that it's not both," Cagalli prayed when her attention was suddenly drawn to Audrey as the young woman was flying through the corridors like she had to be somewhere important fast. "Arcee, keep me updated of what happens as best as you can. I've got something that I want to check out in the meantime."

 _"You've got it, Cagalli,"_ Arcee replied before the two shut off their communication, and Cagalli was left to take off after Audrey as fast as she could while in zero gravity.

As she was chasing after Audrey, they both ended up passing Daguza, who paused in his travels to tell them both to put on normal suits, to which Audrey said nothing while Cagalli simply smirked as she tapped her belt buckle and activated her personal pilot suit once again, gaining a slightly awed look from Daguza as a result before she turned her attention back to Audrey, who now had a very substantial lead on her. Thankfully, it was not too hard for Cagalli to figure out where Audrey was heading, and only minutes later, the blonde was standing outside the door to the infirmary, from which she could hear the voices of Banagher and Audrey as they talked, confirming the blonde's suspicions. When she started hearing what they were saying more clearly though, Cagalli had to frown a little at how much Audrey sounded like she once had pretended to sound around the Orb ministers a few years ago, which in another twist of fate, was actually not that different from how her Audrey sounded when they first met.

"I want you to come with me," Audrey had softly told Banagher, which at first, would sound like something a girl would say when they were about to confess their feelings to a guy they really liked, at least until she continued what she was saying. "We can escape if we go now. We can head back to Industrial Seven; you sneak onto a cargo vessel and find some place to hide in one of the Sides. While you do that, I'll figure out some way to dispose of that machine. If we don't do it…" Audrey had paused here for a moment, and from the sound of her tone just then, Cagalli could tell that the young woman was genuinely worried about what would happen otherwise, but it was clearly not for any of the right reasons. "That thing is just too dangerous. I can't let anyone get their hands on it."

"Now just wait a sec," Banagher half-shouted, but Audrey was not hearing any of it.

"No! I will explain it to you later," Audrey had insisted.

"If you won't tell me anything then how can you expect me to agree with you," Banagher asked, though to some, it would have sounded a bit more like a demand. "Stop trying to convince me by talking like this. It isn't fair."

It was at this point that Cagalli had slowly peaked into the room, and she was able to see that any retort Audrey was going to use at that point had died in her throat while her eyes simply widened a little at what Banagher had just said, but it was really the boy's next question that made her freeze in surprise while her eyes widened to be nearly the size of dinner plates. "Audrey, what do you want to do," Banagher asked. "Don't tell me what it is that you should do, your responsibility; tell me what it is that you _want_ me to do! If you do, I'll…"

Audrey just lowered her head in response, letting her bangs hide her eyes a little from sight, and Cagalli took this as her cue to step in. "You know, you sound a bit like my brother," the blonde said Banagher, announcing her presence to the two. "When he goes out to fight for the sake of others, he always says that it's not because he should do it, but because it's what he believes is the right thing to do; it's always his choice to go out and fight for the sake of a better, peaceful tomorrow. I guess you could say that your question is a well-reasoned one, because at the end of the day, what really matters is that you know what it is that you really want to achieve simply because it's your choice to try and do it."

Banagher and Audrey were both pausing in thought now at Cagalli's words, but before either of them could really think on it, Daguza suddenly barged into the room and roughly grabbed Audrey by the shoulder. This prompted a response from both Cagalli and Banagher of course, but Cagalli was a bit more restrained in her reaction than Banagher was. "You know why I'm here," Daguza told Audrey, to which the young woman just replied with a silent, determined look while the old soldier turned to face Cagalli before continuing. "And I think you know just as well for some reason."

Cagalli's response was just as silent as Audrey's, but the main difference between the determined look she gave in response and Audrey's was that the blonde's look held more fire to it that showed Daguza that she would not let the soldier push her around so easily. Still, she did not hesitate to follow after the two as Daguza led Audrey up to the bridge of the ship with Banagher calling out after the younger girl. The silent yet strong aura Cagalli was emanating from that moment remained present the entire trip to the bridge, but when Daguza started communicating with the enemy forces, it quickly changed to one of barely suppressed anger.

"Attention all attacking mobile suits, you are ordered to cease fire immediately. We are holding Mineva Zabi captive aboard this ship. I repeat; we are holding the Zabi heir, Mineva Lao Zabi captive aboard this ship. If you do not halt your attacks immediately, we cannot guarantee her safety. We are prepared to begin negotiations; I'm sure you'll make the right decision."

There was a brief, tense moment of silence until the lead attacker finally responded in a voice that was familiar to the people who were native to the Universal Century. _"I have received the image. I am Captain Full Frontal of Neo Zeon. Tell me, what're your demands?"_

At this point, Cagalli had pretty much tuned out the rest of the conversation, as it was taking a lot of her resolve to not snap at the people around her who were clearly too busy being shocked at recognizing this Full Frontal's voice as that of someone named Char along with the fact that the Mineva Zabi of the Universal Century was aboard their ship when they should have been showing at least a small modicum of disgust at the fact that they were taking a young girl hostage like this, even if she was supposed to be a great symbol to her people. Unlike Cagalli though, it was clear that not everyone was sure one way or the other if this girl was actually who Daguza said she was, but then again, Cagalli was guessing on the matter almost as much as everyone else was, since she was basing the idea on the fact that the Audrey Burne from the Cosmic Era was really Mineva Zabi. Still, it did not change the fact that the actions that were being taken right now disgusted Cagalli, and from what she could see of Arcee's Holo-Form, which the Autobot had altered to have the uniform of the Londo Bell forces instead of her usual Orb Union uniform, it was obvious that the blonde's Autobot guardian was just as disgusted as she was. It all made Cagalli wonder if this was how Athrun, Kira, and Bumblebee all felt when the _Archangel_ had used Lacus as a shield in a similar manner back in the ship's earlier days of service.

Cagalli's quickly growing temper did not get any easier to contain when Full Frontal turned the tables on them by reminding Daguza that his group were the ones that sent armed mobile suits into a civilian colony and were using Audrey as a shield. In fact, her anger at the whole situation only became further enflamed when Full Frontal started making demands of them as though he were the one holding all the cards. Did this man not understand that the life of a young girl was residing in his hands, or did he just not care if Audrey died one way or another? Cagalli was of course curious about this Laplace's Box that the two sides brought up, but at the moment, it was not really something that she really saw any major significance to take note of, so she just filed it away for later as the scene before her continued to play out to whatever twisted, corrupt tune these people thought they were playing while trying to keep her temper in check. Such a feat was not made any easier when Full Frontal stated that Audrey was irrelevant just because her identity as Mineva was unconfirmed.

Cagalli was eventually brought out of her stewing when Daguza spoke up again after hearing what Full Frontal said in response to their communication. "He's bluffing. He wouldn't forsake the guiding star of Zeon," the ECOAS commander confidently stated, immediately leading Cagalli's anger to return with a passion, as the blonde quickly assumed that meant he was willing to actually harm Audrey like he said he would. Before Cagalli could say anything though, Audrey beat her to the punch.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Audrey calmly informed Daguza, drawing all attention to her. "If Full Frontal is in fact Char Aznable, he would be the son of Zeon Deikun, which means he holds the Zabi family responsible for his father's death. Why should he care about me?"

Cagalli knew that Audrey's words would only serve one purpose in this situation, and her belief was immediately proven true when Daguza raised a gun to her head and stated, "Interesting you would say that. You've removed any doubt in my mind that you _are_ the princess, and I'd bet that a good number of those Zeon soldiers out there still believe in the Zabi family."

Cagalli was about to rush Daguza in an attempt to prevent him from actually harming the UC doppelganger of her friend when she saw Arcee's Holo-Form give a silent, discreet signal to hold off and then gesture to Daguza's hand. When she looked in the direction that her Autobot friend indicated, Cagalli saw that the microphone of Daguza's communicator was still active, meaning Full Frontal was able to hear everything that was currently being said. Cagalli could not help but admit that this was a smart tactic on Daguza's part, but that did not mean that she approved of it, especially given that there seemed to be very little acting in the commander's actions and words. Of course, what followed next was something that she found to be even more infuriating than anything that was said between the two commanders up until now.

"If you believe that then by all means, continue this useless negotiation," Audrey sarcastically offered. "However, the soldiers of Zeon do not play as nicely as you do. If you were a Zeon, all you'd be thinking about is how to destroy anything related to Laplace's Box."

"She's right," Alberto exclaimed before moving himself towards Daguza and Audrey. "We should destroy the Unicorn's electronic system while we have the chance! That thing is the key, not the actual box, so if we destroy it then the safety of the box would be…"

"Shut it," Cagalli snapped as quietly as she could, and her interruption was quickly followed by her slugging the fat man right in his face, sending him into the waiting arms of Daguza's subordinate, who immediately restrained Alberto from retaliating or saying anything else that could land them into more trouble. Audrey on the other hand, still had something else to say and do.

"Let's put the resolve of a Federation soldier to the test, Commander Daguza Mackle," Audrey suddenly challenged as she turned to face said commander, which led to Daguza's gun being aimed directly for the center of her forehead. "If you have the strength, then destroy the key and take my life. Losing both the key and myself would undoubtedly deal a severe blow to Neo Zeon. Otherwise, continue to wait for them to storm in and take it from you. There's no time for indecision."

Cagalli could not believe what she was hearing now. This girl may not have been her friend from back in the Cosmic Era, but it was clear that the two were quite similar just from the way that Audrey spoke and how strongly she seemed to hold her beliefs. It was only natural that Cagalli would be horrified by the very idea that Audrey seemed so okay with the idea that there was a very real chance she could die in just a few seconds, even if she would leave a lot of people upset. At the same time, Cagalli and Arcee could both hear something else in her voice when she had said all of that; something that laid beneath the otherwise confident air of conviction that Audrey was trying to give off: sadness, the kind of sadness that could only result from being alone for so long and not ever having any real friends. Clearly Audrey did not realize that she was not truly alone anymore, and that was something Cagalli would have made clear in a short time had someone else not beaten her to the punch.

"Audrey, stop talking like that! You're only making it harder for everyone and yourself," Banagher cried out as he came racing onto the bridge, leaving Arcee and Cagalli to wonder just how he had managed to find his way up here at all when he had not even seen any part of the ship outside the infirmary.

"Banagher," Audrey gasped in honest shock at how concerned he sounded for her. Even though her eyes showed a look of disbelief, Cagalli could easily see that beneath that, Audrey was genuinely touched by what Banagher seemed to be trying to do. This was because Cagalli knew the feeling all too well, having grown up as the princess of Orb and never having any real friends until she met Kira, Athrun, and the others.

"Let's just go. This isn't something you should be involved in," Banagher said as he reached for Audrey's hand, but the young woman quickly pulled away just as his fingers had brushed it.

"My name is Mineva Zabi," Audrey flatly told Banagher.

"No, you're Audrey," Banagher insisted. "I don't care what your name is! To me you're still Audrey Burne."

"Enough," Daguza interrupted. "Children shouldn't concern themselves with adult matters, and that goes just as much for you as it does him, Miss Zala."

"First off, that's Mrs. Zala. Second off, I'm not a child, I'm twenty-one. Third, he has just as much of a right to have a voice here as tubby over there does. After all, you're the one who's holding someone he cares about as a hostage," Cagalli retorted.

"Don't you know anything about our history? This girl is the princess of Neo Zeon," Daguza attempted to argue, only for Banagher to cut in.

"Well if we're just children then why is she your hostage?! Is this how adults are supposed to behave? Does being older make this right," Banagher demanded.

"No, it doesn't," Cagalli answered for Daguza while throwing a very harsh glare at everyone on the bridge, causing every single soldier to hang their heads a little in shame at her look; some more subtlety than others.

 _"Time's up. What is your answer,"_ Full Frontal suddenly said over the comm., drawing everyone's attention away from the drama that had just unfolded, but given that it had unfolded, they found that none of them could give the man an answer that would have satisfied either party now, so they all simply remained quiet. _"Understood. Then we shall destroy your vessel."_

That immediately got the ship's alarms blaring again while the bridge crew frantically worked to ready their defenses, but Banagher was not planning on leaving the matter at that. "It's just a box. Why can't you just hand the damn thing over to them," the rookie Gundam pilot asked. "We don't even know what the box is; why do so many people have to die for it?"

"I'd actually like to know the answer to that as well. What is the big deal about one box, anyway," Cagalli inquired, and it was clear from the glare she was giving everyone that she was not going to let them drop the matter unless she received an answer.

"While no one knows the secrets in Laplace's Box, some say it could overthrow the Federation, and we're fighting to keep it safe so that no one else has to die for it," Daguza explained. "What if we were to turn the box over to them only to cause even more people to lose their lives? Could either of you take responsibility for that?"

When neither Cagalli nor Banagher said anything in response, Daguza just tossed his headset over to his subordinate so that the man could repeat Daguza's threat to Full Frontal, for what good it actually did at this point. At this point, it was clear that the threat was just a desperate bluff that even a poor poker player would give up trying to sell at this point, but Banagher did not seem to be aware of that. "If we destroy that red mobile suit, then you won't need Audrey as a hostage anymore, right?" He did not wait for anyone to answer him before making his decision. "I'll do it!"

"Banagher, wait," Cagalli shouted, but the boy was already out the door before she could do anything to so much as attempt to stop him. Cagalli was about to chase after him when Arcee's Holo-From blocked her path.

"Let him go. He needs to do this," Arcee whispered to her little sister figure. Cagalli wanted to argue, but there was just something inside of her that said that she should listen to Arcee; something that almost like an intuitive signal that said that she needed to let Banagher fight this battle alone so that she could help him later. She was not sure what it was that was telling her this, but one thing was certain to Cagalli: it felt a lot like the ringing she heard in her head during the last battle before her machine formed a barrier around it to deflect the quad-wing mobile suit's attack.

* * *

Banagher's battle had started out well enough, despite the fact that some of Full Frontal's comrades had tried to intervene at some points, and for a moment it seemed as though he would actually win the fight until the quad-wing mobile suit suddenly intercepted him and captured the Unicorn right before everyone's eyes. There was nothing anyone could to try and help Banagher at that point, because even if Cagalli were to attempt to save him, it would only end up costing them Banagher's life and the Unicorn Gundam, or worse, so they were all left to just watch as Full Frontal's forces flew off with the young man and his machine while he softly called out an apology to Audrey until they lost contact completely. Though Audrey had pretended this did not affect her as she left the bridge to be escorted to a holding cell, it was clear to a few of them that this was in fact tearing her up a little.

While the _Nahel Argama_ crew had quickly begun planning a mission to retrieve the Unicorn and hopefully rescue Banagher, it was clear that certain parties were more concerned about the mobile suit than they were its pilot, and that was something that just did not sit right with Cagalli at all, so she had no intention of waiting around for whatever they planned to do; a sentiment that was shared by Arcee, which the Autobot made clear before saying that she would be waiting for Cagalli in the hangar and then deactivating her Holo-Form. Under normal circumstances, Cagalli would have headed straight to the hangar as well, but she had to make a quick stop first, and if she were to judge by the fact that a young, blonde man had just left from the direction she was heading in, Cagalli would have to say that she was not the only one to think she needed to speak with the doppelganger of her friend.

Cagalli had to wait for a minute before the guard became distracted enough to not notice her slipping into Audrey's make-shift cell, and once she had, she saw that the door opening had drawn the prisoner's attention right to her. Cagalli just stared at Audrey in silence for a minute until she finally asked one of the first things that was on her mind in regards to the UC double of her friend. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I beg your pardon," Audrey asked.

"I get feeling like you've got no one in your life that really knows you and feeling like the only thing that really matters is the job you have been born or brought into, but are you really so desperate to end it that you've turned to thoughts of suicide," Cagalli elaborated.

Audrey just stared at Cagalli for a minute before looking away from her and saying, "I don't expect you to understand the burden I bare, or why I have to bare it alone."

"Bullshit," Cagalli immediately retorted. "And don't try to sell that whole 'you couldn't understand' crap to me, because I understand it better than you think." Cagalli paused for a moment so that she could collect herself and not say anything out of anger, and then looked Audrey straight in the eye as she continued. "Like you, I too am a leader of my people, but unlike you, I also have the responsibility of leading everyone on my Earth. I've had to do so since I was only eighteen in the case of the latter, but I've had to lead my own nation's people from the time when I was sixteen, and that was mainly because my father and family had sacrificed themselves to keep our nation and its power out of the hands of bastards that would have used it to commit a terrible act of genocide."

"I highly doubt that your argument for our similarities is well founded, because I never even knew my father or even most of my family growing up. They were all dead when I was still just a baby," Audrey retorted. "More than that, they've become viewed as devils and monsters that wanted to dominate both Space and Earth, and I was left to become the guiding star of Neo Zeon before I had even become a teenager."

"Maybe, but that makes very little difference," Cagalli argued. "No child should have to be drawn into any battlefield, but especially not the one that's as brutal as the one of politics, no matter what their age. Unless you have true friends that care about you, and who will do anything to help you, even if it means leading others to think that you're either abandoning your nation or betraying them, then all that pressure that comes with those responsibilities will end up crushing you under its weight. You can understand that, right? After all, if I had to guess, I'd say you haven't had any real friends until Banagher came into your life, did you?"

Audrey wanted to protest and say that she did have a few friends, but her argument died in her throat before it could even gain a single syllable of voice, because she knew that Cagalli was right. Sure, Haman may have acted like a friend to her at times, but it was clear as day that the woman was more interested in just restoring Zeon to what it was under her family's old rule and using her as a figurehead, and while the real Char often did seem like he genuinely cared about her, she would have to think of him as either a surrogate brother or an uncle of some type, and he was not really around all that much to be honest, so it was hard to count him as a friend too. Shaking these thoughts from her head, Audrey figured that she should at least find out the one thing that did not make sense about this confrontation she was in the midst of. "Why do you care so much? If you truly are from another universe, then why should you care about any of the people of the Universal Century, let alone me?"

Cagalli just gave a soft smile and simply replied, "In my universe, the universe of the Cosmic Era, you and I are both very good friends, and the bond you share with Banagher is even more special than that, and I'm willing to bet that the same will eventually hold true in this universe as well, given a little time." Audrey's eyes had widened in response to this, showing she had not expected that answer, and she was just as unprepared for the next thing Cagalli said to her. "You know, you never did answer Banagher's question earlier. You know what I'm talking about right? When he told you to tell him what you _wanted_ to do instead of what you think you should do."

Audrey lowered her head a little once again, shadowing her eyes with her bangs as best as she could, but she knew that would not keep Cagalli from pursuing this line of conversation. When the blonde just stood there waiting patiently for her answer, Audrey finally said, "I…I don't know what I want to do. For so long, I've lived thinking that what I wanted to do was the same thing as what I should do, but…after meeting Banagher…"

Cagalli did not need her to finish that though, and she simply nodded before saying, "You wouldn't be the first to be in that position." When Audrey turned her attention back to Cagalli, the blonde continued, "My father once asked me that when one guy kills someone for killing another, and then that guy is killed for being a killer, then how are we ever supposed to find peace? I didn't have any real answer to such a basic question at the time, but I still felt like I did know what my answer was, right to the point that I eventually asked someone else the same thing. With such a twisted and vicious cycle in place, no peace can ever truly exist, and that's why, if we ever want to truly bring about a real, lasting peace for everyone, I'm willing to keep fighting to keep those I care about safe, and I intend to keep planting new flowers no matter how many times they're blown away. That's just my answer, though, and while it may be the same answer as my brother's, my husband's, and many of my other friends', that doesn't mean that it has to be yours as well. Only you can decide what your answer to ending the cycle of war and killing, and the best way to do that, is with people that you know you can trust; people who you know to be real friends to you."

Audrey said nothing in response to Cagalli's little speech, but the blonde did not need to hear anything to know that what she said had made an impression on the Zeon princess, so she simply turned to leave, and left things at that, knowing that Mineva Zabi of the Universal Century needed a moment to herself so that she could think about what Cagalli had just told her.

* * *

After her talk with Audrey, Cagalli eventually joined Arcee down in the _Nahel Argama_ 's hangar bay, and the two immediately took off into space in pursuit of Banagher and Full Frontal's forces, ignoring every word of protest that Daguza and the rest of the ship's command staff threw out at them as they did so. They honestly could not care less what those people though, because the two were more determined to save this alternate version of their friend far more than they were concerned about the consequences they would face when they eventually returned to the ship. In no time at all, the two soon had the Neo Zeon ship that had taken Banagher in their sights, and Arcee quickly moved into a well-hidden position so that she would not be detected while Cagalli just drove the Diamond Akatsuki straight ahead. Arcee had made it clear that she had reservations about what this plan involved, but there was no denying that they did not have very many other options if they wanted to help Banagher.

Cagalli did not have to wait for very long until the Neo Zeon forces sent out someone to meet her, and it came as very little surprise that the one they sent out was the quad-wing mobile suit that had assisted in Banagher's capture. The emerald machine then positioned itself in preparation to attack when Cagalli had the Diamond Akatsuki raise its arms up in a show of surrender, causing the mobile suit's pilot to pause in their actions. Seeing that she likely had their attention, Cagalli accessed an open channel and called out, "Attention Neo Zeon mobile suit and all affiliated forces. This is the pilot of the mobile suit known as the Diamond Akatsuki Gundam. I wish to surrender myself into your custody. I am willing to surrender my machine and weapons if you accept my surrender. I only ask for an audience with your organization's current leader."

This was the part of the plan that had Arcee so worried. The idea was that Cagalli would be taken to meet with Full Frontal along with Banagher, which would give her a chance to speak with the Unicorn's pilot about the next part of their rescue plan while simultaneously allowing her to hear about things from the other side of this little story. Cagalli had admitted that there was a great deal being left to chance with this course of action, but there was not really much time to think of anything better, and even if there were, it was not like the two had many options outside of waiting for whatever the Londo Bell group was going to try, and that was just not an option for them. After waiting for a few more minutes in tense silence, the quad-wing finally stood down as the pilot sent Cagalli a response.

 _"Diamond Akatsuki pilot,"_ a woman's voice called out. _"We are willing to accept the terms of your surrender. Please follow me onto the_ Garencieres _, where your mobile suit will be kept and you will be held until we arrive at our destination."_

Cagalli allowed herself a small smile at seeing that the plan seemed to be going well so far before she replied, "Understood."

With that, the two mobile suits disappeared into the large, faded green ship, leaving Arcee to pray that Cagalli would be alright while she was held by the ship before she started following them as discreetly and as well out of their sensor range as she could.

* * *

While Cagalli quickly discovered that Banagher did not seem to be aboard the ship she had surrendered herself to, she quickly learned that she would indeed be having her meeting with Full Frontal along with Banagher, so she did not have anything to really complain about. She was also fortunate enough to stow away her pilot suit and weapons in a way that would lead them to think that she had none on her before she was asked to leave her mobile suit and stand before the ship's captain. When she finally stood before the man in question, she found herself facing a large man with black hair and a beard, and lightly tanned skin, decked out in an army green shirt, brown coat, and black pants and boots, and from the look in his eyes, Cagalli could tell that this man was likely a veteran soldier who had to endure far more than anyone should ever have had to. Looking over to where the quad-wing machine had docked allowed Cagalli to finally get a glimpse of the machine's pilot, and she was quick to see that the pilot was a rather lovely-looking young woman with reasonably pale skin, light orange hair, and violet eyes, decked out in a purple and black pilot's suit.

"Welcome aboard the _Garencieres_ , Miss," the captain suddenly said, drawing Cagalli's full attention back to him. "I am Suberoa Zinnerman, the ship's captain."

Cagalli politely nodded in response to this before she gave her own introduction, or at least an abbreviated version, since she did not want to really tell these people everything she had told the _Nahel Argama_ crew, at least not just yet. "My name is Cagalli Yula Athha Zala. I'm the leader of a small nation that is sympathetic to the Neo Zeon cause, but I doubt you've heard of us. We're so far out of the way that you would have to have come from our nation to even know we existed, not that the Federation really cares to even bother acknowledging us one way or the other."

This seemed to be a satisfactory introduction to Zinnerman, as he simply nodded in response to Cagalli with a less amount of suspicion than he initially had. When he noticed Cagalli casting a small look towards his best pilot again, he motioned the young woman over to them saying that he wanted to introduce her as well. "This is our best pilot and one of my most loyal crewmembers, Marida Cruz," Zinnerman introduced.

Cagalli and Marida held each others' gaze for a minute, neither of them saying anything to one another the entire time, until Cagalli finally gave a small smile and extended her hand for a friendly handshake, catching Marida off guard when she said, "I should really apologize for earlier when we met in the battlefield. I didn't realize who you were with and assumed that you were an enemy given how you were battling against a Gundam. Though I must admit, you seem to be a very skilled pilot; probably one of the best that I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few skilled pilots."

Marida did not seem to know what to say to this, but eventually she regained the neutral look she had before and accepted the offered handshake as she said, "Thank you for the compliment, and welcome aboard, ma'am."

"Just Cagalli is fine," the blonde immediately insisted. "I really don't like being called 'ma'am' since it makes me feel a lot older than I actually am. Then again, I've hated being called things like 'princess' or 'your highness' for as long as I can remember, so that's really nothing in comparison to that."

While Marida gave no outward response to Cagalli's attempt at humor, Zinnerman did allow the corners of his mouth to turn upwards a little in response before he schooled his features again and led Cagalli out of the hangar and into the quarters she would be staying in until they reached their destination. She was not in said quarters for very long though, because it was only a few minutes later that they reached their destination and Marida came by in her regular uniform to escort Cagalli to the meeting with Full Frontal. Halfway there, they came across Zinnerman and Banagher, the latter of which quietly gasped in shock at seeing Cagalli was here as well, but Cagalli just gave him a discreet wink along with a silent signal to not say anything, and he quickly silenced any exclamation he would have given at seeing her.

A little while later, the two were both being escorted by Marida and Zinnerman through what Cagalli could only describe as a make-shift space colony inside of a large asteroid, and the further in that they went, the better and better the decorum seemed to become, until it eventually reached a point where it started to seem like they were inside some special mansion that Cagalli considered to be almost on par with the homes of Orb's ruling leaders or even the nice hotels in New Iacon City, which was saying something, since even the most basic of New Iacon's hotels could be compared to five-star hotel suites. Eventually, they came to a stop outside a door that had a pair of guards with rifles standing on either side, a clear sign of the importance of either the room, the occupant inside, or even both, and after a quick exchange of salutes between the Neo Zeon warriors, they were allowed inside, allowing Cagalli and Banagher to both gain looks of awe at the extravagant room they were greeted with. It was not the quality of the room that really had the two's attention though. What had gained Cagalli and Banagher's attention was the room's two occupants.

One of them was standing off to the side, throwing Banagher a very heated glare for reasons that the two could not begin to guess, and was wearing a green and white uniform that had a kind of regal sense to it, but he was not really of any importance to either of the two, at least in comparison to the man that was seated directly ahead of them at a large desk. When she first saw the man in question, Cagalli's first thoughts was of Rau Le Creuset, mostly due to how both were blonde men that wore white masks, but even from a distance, Cagalli could somehow feel that this man was not really much like Le Creuset, and his fancy red and white uniform did nothing to hide the feeling she was getting from him. If anything, the man felt rather…empty to Cagalli. She was not really sure how else to describe the vibe she was getting off this man, or even how she could feel something from him at all, but that was just what Cagalli would say if you were to ask her right then under a different setting and circumstances.

"They tell me there was a room just like this in the last fortress of the former principality, A Baoa Qu," the masked man stated as an icebreaker, confirming that he was the same person that the _Nahel Argama_ had spoken to before Banagher had gone out to fight: Full Frontal. "The governor general of Palau is apparently an artisan sympathizer of the Former Principality of Zeon. I have to accept favors like this location graciously even if the décor isn't my style. I suppose it's a necessary trait of a leader." Full Frontal then turned to his troops and said, "Good job Captain Zinnerman, and you, Lieutenant Marida. I'll take it from here." Zinnerman immediately saluted and turned to leave, but Marida had to ask about one other thing before leaving, a question that Full Frontal had already anticipated. "I know; Princess Mineva being held hostage by the Federation was unexpected. We will have many opportunities to rescue her using both force and diplomacy. Just be patient."

"Sir," Marida saluted, and she then turned to follow Zinnerman out the door, leaving Banagher and Cagalli with Full Frontal and the other man who was still glaring at the Unicorn pilot.

The three just ignored the fourth man's continued glaring as they all held each others' gazes, Banagher muttering something at one point that Cagalli did not quite catch since she was determined to not let her gaze falter for a second, a skill that she found very beneficial when dealing with a political situation, until the Zeon captain finally gestured over to the sofa that was to the two's right and offered, "Come now, have a seat." Banagher and Cagalli did not say anything in response to this, but instead just nodded and moved towards the seat that had just been offered. "How are you feeling, Banagher Links? I'm told that it was no small feat to get you out of that Gundam safely."

Banagher was a bit put out by the fact that this man seemed to know his name, but he cast it off as something they had learned from what little time they spent looking into him since they found out he was the pilot of the Unicorn Gundam and just stood before the couch as he looked to Full Frontal with a question of his own. "So, um…was that you? Were you the guy I fought with in that red mobile suit?"

"Do you have a problem sitting down to tea with a mortal enemy, Banagher," Full Frontal casually asked in response. His gaze then moved a little to Banagher's right before he added, "It would seem that our other guest has no such qualms on the matter."

Banagher immediately glanced to his right and saw that Cagalli had indeed taken a seat and was preparing to take a sip from the tea cup before her, much to his surprise. Upon seeing that everyone's attention was on her, Cagalli simply said, "You're not the first 'mortal enemy' that I've met with in such a setting. The only difference between this time and the last was that the person in question was offering his own personal blend of coffee instead of tea."

"I see," Full Frontal smiled in response. "I must admit, I'm surprised that the pilot of the gold and silver Gundam was so willing to surrender themselves, let alone the fact that it was a young woman like yourself, Miss…"

"Representative Athha Zala," Cagalli replied evenly. "Is my being a woman and piloting a mobile suit a problem for you?"

"Not at all. I meant no disrespect, Representative, and I was actually referring to the fact that the leader of a nation would be flying a mobile suit at all, let alone a Gundam class one," Full Frontal clarified.

"I find that it's best to lead by example, and I can't expect the people I lead to fight for what they believe in if I'm not willing to do so myself," Cagalli explained. "More to the point, my machine is actually gold and diamond, not silver."

"I see. My apologies then," Full Frontal nodded in response.

Banagher just looked between the two in disbelief for a minute, honestly shocked by the fact that they were able to talk like they were not just trying to kill each other a minute ago, but then again, he had heard Cagalli say that she was a politician, so it made sense that she would be able to act this cool in such an environment, so he elected to follow her lead and sat down to have a sip of tea as well, though he was still a bit cautious all the same. "You have good reflexes, Banagher, even if you're a bit reckless. However, that's a temperament not unbefitting a pilot," Full Frontal stated as he stood up and walked over to the two, removing one of his gloves as he went.

When Banagher saw that Full Frontal was now standing before him with his hand outstretched, he quickly stood up again and prepared to accept the offered hand, only to pause just a moment before doing so. "This might sound rude, but may I ask why do you wear that mask? Are you hiding a scar or something," Banagher asked, pointing out a flaw in Full Frontal's etiquette as he did. "I'd like to see your face that is if you have nothing to hide."

The other Zeon soldier in the room was about to snap at Banagher for that remark, but Full Frontal quickly waved him off and said, "Its fine Lieutenant Angelo. Banagher is right. It's a matter of etiquette." With that said, Full Frontal easily removed his mask, allowing Banagher to be greeted with a face that was practically identical to that of Char Aznable. "I choose to wear this because it's my style, but it serves as a tool of propaganda. Most of the time I forget I even have it on, until someone like you makes a point of mentioning it. My apologies."

This time when Full Frontal offered his hand to Banagher, the boy accepted it, though a bit hesitantly. Cagalli on the other hand did so more graciously when offered a handshake to her, like the world leader she had spent so much of her life being, and said, "It's quite understandable, actually. I have a couple of friends with similar situations."

"Thank you for that, Representative Athha Zala," Full Frontal nodded before turning his attention back to Banagher. "I heard about how you met Princess Mineva, but as for how you came into possession of that mobile suit from the Vist Foundation, the Unicorn Gundam, there is much I have yet to understand. The truth is, the decision to turn over that machine to us had already been arranged. So what would make Cardias Vist suddenly choose you to be the bearer of Laplace's Box?"

"I was asked the same thing by the two who escorted me here, and I already told them everything I know," Banagher easily and rather coolly replied.

Full Frontal just looked at Banagher in disbelief before setting his removed mask down on his desk as he proposed his own theory on the matter. "The prosperity of the Vist Foundation was due to its pact with the Federation government; an arrangement held in place by their secret possession of the box, but they chose to end all that and give it to us. It must've taken something significant to alter the plan, but even if something had gone wrong, why entrust the box to a stranger? What makes the most sense is that you have some relation to the Vist Family. Well Banagher?"

Banagher's eyes narrowed a little in response to this, confirming for Cagalli that Full Frontal had guessed correctly, but that did not mean that Banagher was going to just confirm it so easily. "Is that a question I have to answer," Banagher inquired.

At that point, Angelo had finally had enough, as shown by the moment that Banagher was roughly grabbed by said soldier, who proceeded to glare into his face with utter disgust. Thankfully, that's as far as Angelo got before Full Frontal told him to back off once again, but the lieutenant ended up settling for some form of retaliation for what he believed to be affronts from Banagher. "You'd better learn respect, punk," Angelo snarled.

"I believe he already knows a thing or two about it, Lieutenant," Cagalli retorted, drawing Angelo's ire to her. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, ma'am, but in my experience, respect is earned, not given. You'd do well to remember that."

While Angelo was a little bristled by some of the truth behind Cagalli's words, he was more hung up on what she had said before said wisdom. "I will have you know, I am not a woman. I am a man!"

Cagalli's stoic façade dropped a little at that point, showing she had not expected that, but she quickly recomposed herself and said, "Well you might want to make that a little easier to recognize in the future, because you could've fooled me."

Angelo was about two seconds away from slapping the blonde for her remark, but another warning from his captain and the knowledge of the fact that she was a government leader was enough to keep him from carrying out such actions before he moved away from the two once again. "Of course you're not obligated to respond, Banagher. We simply want information regarding Laplace's Box. May I add that we're asking you respectfully because of your association with Princess Mineva, so please keep that in mind, Banagher," Full Frontal revealed. He then turned to Cagalli before he carried on with a line of questioning for her. "That being said, we're also curious about your machine. Just looking at it, it's clear that your nation possesses impressive engineering skills to be able to make so much as a basic mobile suit like that, let alone one that is a Gundam type, but I really have to wonder how it is possible you could've developed such a machine without anyone ever noticing."

"As I've already told Captain Zinnerman, my nation is so far out of the way that normally, the only way to know it even exists is to come from it yourself," Cagalli explained. "And while our mobile suit development is impressive, the Diamond Akatsuki is actually a special project that took a great deal of resources and hard work to complete. It's actually the only one of its kind, even in my nation."

"I see. I've read the reports on your machine's combat capabilities, and I think I can see just why that would be the case based off that alone. Not only does it seem to possess a psyo-frame, but to be able to alter its limbs into full-fledged weapons…well, that's something that I've never really seen before," Full Frontal praised.

It took a great deal to hide the confused look Cagalli gained at this point, but she was sure that she was unable to do anything to hide it from her voice when she spoke again. "The arm blasters and blades are actually a standard issue feature for many of our nation's machines, but what makes you think it possesses a psyco-frame? No one in my country, including myself, has even heard of that technology until just recently, so I can assure you that the Diamond Akatsuki could not possibly possess it."

"Now that I find hard to believe, seeing as a few of the scans we made of your machine indicated that it did indeed possess a psyco-frame of its own," Full Frontal revealed. "It's nothing as impressive as that of the Unicorn Gundam's, but it is indeed there, so there's no point in trying to say otherwise."

Cagalli was not really sure what to say in response to that, but that was partly due to being uncertain if there was really anything she could say. This was the first she had ever heard of her machine possessing technology like this psyco-frame she had heard so much about recently, and until now, she had assumed her machine was just like nearly all the other Transformer Gundams in the sense that its special features stopped at the same place as the others, save for Athrun and Lunamaria's since they had machines with a mystery function. Hearing that such a belief was wrong quickly led Cagalli to wonder just what else about the Transformer Gundams there was that she and her friends did not already know about it, be it the pilots themselves, or even the people who had helped to develop the suits. Seeing that Cagalli did not have anything to really say in response to this, Full Frontal just returned his attention to Banagher until Cagalli had regained her senses enough to continue the talks, hoping that they could learn something new about Laplace's Box.

* * *

Most of what had followed Full Frontal's revelation about the Diamond Akatsuki was a blur to Cagalli, but she was able to keep herself composed enough to be able to keep track of the basic gist of things, which helped a great deal when Angelo decided that he could not stop himself from attempting to harm Banagher any longer. While Banagher was sent reeling at the fact that he had actually killed someone during the previous battle and was thus left unable to really defend himself, Cagalli had no such problems, and quickly dealt the man she had mistaken for a woman a quick beating in response, much to Angelo's humiliation and Full Frontal's impression. Shortly afterwards, the meeting had ended with Marida and Zinnerman escorting Banagher and Cagalli out to where the two would be staying for their visit, but not before Banagher asked Full Frontal if he really was Char Aznable. Full Frontal's only response was that he was simply a vessel for the people's will, and they needed him to be Char, then that was who he would be, an answer that just confirmed to Cagalli just how empty inside the captain truly was.

Afterwards, the two were brought with Marida to the home of one of Zinnerman's other crewmembers and his family, where Banagher ended up revealing just how torn up he was about the fact that he had unknowingly taken someone else's life after getting in a small debate with one of the man's kids. This had led Marida to show Banagher and Cagalli a make-shift sanctuary that had been made in Palau some time ago back in its earlier days while revealing her own views about the whole thing, though they were not views that Cagalli was all that fond of. From the way Marida talked, she made it sound like a person's life did not matter once they climbed into a mobile suit and that the person just became part of the machine, and while she seemed to say these things with conviction in her voice, Cagalli could still detect an undercurrent of sadness as well. The blonde could not blame Marida for this, as she was quick to remember the Extended pilots such as Stella and many others that Shinn and the others had fought in the previous two wars, and that was what led her to wonder if Marida was in a similar situation as well. Cagalli shook that thought off though, since part of her considered it to be a little crazy, even if it was possible, and right now was not the time to be forming theories about the various intricacies of the Universal Century. She needed to focus on getting Banagher and the Unicorn Gundam out of there before the Federation started carrying out their more brutal and deadly plan.

Unfortunately, she soon found out that she and Arcee were on more of a time limit than they originally thought, because while they were returning back to the family home with Marida, Banagher received a message from a man who was pretending to be a drunken passerby. Hoping that she was wrong in her assumption, Cagalli snuck into Banagher's room after Marida and the others were all asleep, only to find that she had indeed guessed correctly when she saw the written message that Banagher had just finished reading. "This time…the battlefield is going to be coming here," Banagher whispered just audibly enough for the blonde to hear, likely to show that he knew she was in the room.

"Not if we can help it," Cagalli confidently told Banagher. "We're getting out of here before that little operation even has a chance to begin."

"How can you be so sure," Banagher asked. He was certain that Cagalli had just as little of a way to escape on her own as he currently did.

Cagalli's answer came when a soft beeping suddenly sounded drawing her attention to a wristwatch that Banagher had not noticed her wearing until now, and when she saw a familiar logo appear on the dial of the watch, Cagalli smirked and said, "Because unlike you, I didn't come out here on my own, and that's the signal that I've been waiting for to say that now's the time we should move."

"But what about…" Banagher started to protest, but Cagalli was not going to hear any of it.

"If you want to get out of here alive, without this place becoming a battlefield, then you'll do as I say and come with me now," Cagalli told Banagher in a strict tone that left no room for argument. "And don't think for a second that we're going to be leaving our machines behind either. My friend has already located both of them and will be here any second to take us over to the Gundams. Last chance; do you want to go and keep this place from becoming a battlefield like your colony had, or not?"

Banagher seemed to hesitate for another minute or so, until he finally nodded and stood up from his bed so he could quietly follow Cagalli out of the room and the building itself, down to the street. Once they were out, Cagalli told Banagher to keep a steady walking pace so they would not draw attention too quickly, and they kept said pace until they were well out of sight of the house, at which point they broke into a small run. Sadly, they did not get very far though, as their path was quickly cut off by a group of Neo Zeon soldiers led Full Frontal, Zinnerman, and Marida as well.

"Somehow I'm not really as surprised as I'm sure you would've assumed I would be, Representative Athha Zala," Full Frontal commented. "Your story, while convincing, was still rather suspect given how you had appeared so soon after the Unicorn Gundam's capture, but I won't deny that I was almost convinced for a moment. Still, I have to ask, did you really think you could sneak Banagher out of here on your own?"

Cagalli said nothing in reply, which prompted Zinnerman to raise his gun and aim it at the two, but surprisingly, Banagher did not seem to draw back in fear like Cagalli had expected him to. She figured that Banagher had probably had encountered Zinnerman earlier on at some point and was led to believe that the man would not actually shoot them, or he was just placing a great deal of confidence in her, thinking she had a way out of this situation as well, and thankfully, she was not going to disappoint. At that point, Angelo stepped forward with his own weapon raised with a vicious, yet boastful smirk on his face as he asked, "Any last words, brats?"

If Angelo was expecting the two to suddenly become worried at his question, he was quickly disappointed, because Cagalli simply smirked and said, "Actually, five words do come to mind in my case." She paused for a moment, and then looked up a little and shouted, "Autobots, transform and roll out!"

Any confusion the members of Neo Zeon had at Cagalli's choice of words had little chance of properly forming, as barely seconds after Cagalli had spoken, a familiar, midnight blue motorcycle raced into the air over their heads and transformed into Arcee, who quickly brought up her arm blasters and fired a few stunning blasts once she had landed in front of Cagalli and Banagher. The Neo Zeon troops quickly scattered to avoid getting hit by Arcee's attack, but some were not lucky enough to avoid being hit. Thankfully, Arcee's blasters had been on their lowest setting and set to stun mode, so none of them were killed, but they were now well enough out of the way for Arcee to transform back into vehicle mode again once she had ceased firing and then shout to the two Gundam pilots, "Hop on!"

Cagalli and Banagher did so with great pleasure, and as soon as her two passengers were both aboard, Arcee rocketed away as fast as she could, leaving Full Frontal and his forces well in the dust before they could attempt to do anything. After going a short ways, and feeling sure enough that they were well out of ear-shot, Banagher finally asked, "How'd your friend get here without anyone ever noticing, let alone inside?"

"We were once known as robots in disguise for a reason, kid," Arcee answered for Cagalli. "But aside from that, I'm one of the best stealth operatives in the Autobots. There hasn't been a base that I've failed to sneak into for years now, especially in the case of human bases."

"Oh," was really all that Banagher could manage in response to this, until he finally found something else to say. "Well, thanks Miss…"

"Just call me Arcee, kid. No 'Miss' necessary," the Autobot replied.

Banagher nodded in response to this with a small smile, and the rest of the journey was spent in silence until they finally reached the hangar that the Sleeves had stored the two Gundams for study. Cagalli and Arcee let Banagher return to his own machine before making their way over to the blonde's, which allowed Cagalli the chance to tell Arcee about what she had learned from Full Frontal. Like Cagalli, Arcee was just as shocked at the news that the Diamond Akatsuki apparently had a psyco-frame, at least according to the Second Coming of Char, and while she did have some theories on how it was possible, it was not smart to dwell on such thoughts at the moment given that they were still deep within enemy territory, so she said they would think about it after they had gotten Banagher to safety, to which Cagalli immediately agreed.

That decision had been reached the minute they arrived at the Diamond Akatsuki's location, and Cagalli immediately climbed into her machine, activated the Gundam, and then transformed it into its sea-plane mode so that she could fly it out of there with Arcee following as close behind as she could. While they were traveling here, Cagalli had explained to Banagher that they would have to take separate routes in order to escape so that the Unicorn would appear on the side that the Federation Forces would most likely be coming from, sending a clear signal that any attack on the colony would not be needed, while the Diamond Akatsuki would appear from around the other side seconds later. This was also so that they could avoid be captured again, since they were hoping that Neo Zeon would not be able to chase after them both at once so easily if they went in different directions. So far, things seemed to be working out well, and from the Federation chatter that she and Arcee were picking up over their radios, it seemed that their plan to show that an attack on Palau was unnecessary had the desired effect, but as is often the case, just when everything seemed to be wrapping up nicely, things started to go bad.

Cagalli did not actually see what had happened, but apparently, the Sleeves were a bit quicker in scrambling someone who could intercept Banagher in his attempt to retreat than she and Arcee had originally predicted, and the blonde could only hope that the person who was now engaging the Unicorn Gundam was not who she thought it was. Those hopes were quickly dashed when Cagalli saw the quad-wing mobile suit, which she now knew was known as the Kshatriya, fighting against Banagher, and somehow, she just knew that the pilot inside of the machine was Marida Cruz. Admittedly, she did find it odd that Marida was fighting Banagher all by herself with no one else in the Neo Zeon forces so much as attempting to provide her support, but right now, she was more concerned with stopping the two from fighting each other. Just as she was about to approach, she suddenly found herself being fired on by the missing Neo Zeon forces, making it obvious that they were only there to keep anyone from interfering with the battle between the two mobile suits before her.

"I don't have time for this," Cagalli growled. "I've got to get to Banagher and Marida before they kill each other."

The blonde's self-appointed mission of stopping the two combatants was easier said than done, seeing as there were Neo Zeon mobile suits blocking her at every turn, be it physically or through weapons fire. Even with the Diamond Akatsuki in vehicle mode, it was hard for Cagalli to dodge everything, but eventually, some of the pressure was taken off of her when Arcee suddenly intervened and fired on the enemy mobile suits. "Go on, Cagalli. I'll take care of these guys while you stop Banagher and your new friend," the Autobot femme shouted as she continued her barrage of suppressing fire.

"Got it," Cagalli replied, and she immediately turned to fly towards the battlefield that was, until now, exclusively for the Unicorn Gundam and the Kshatriya.

At some point during that brief period that Cagalli had been held up, the Unicorn had morphed into its Destroy Mode once again and was now fighting the Kshatriya in a way that made it seem like Banagher just did not care any longer as to whether or not Marida would live through this battle, and Marida was retaliating in kind. Or at least, she was attempting to, but so far, Marida had only managed to destroy the rifle that Banagher had the Unicorn Gundam grab before leaving the Palau, and that did not even seem to slow the Unicorn down at all. Instead, it had released some type of energy field that caused Marida's Funnels to freeze in their tracks, almost as if they had any connection between the bit type weapons and Marida's machine had been lost. That was not entirely accurate, for when the Unicorn Gundam waved its hand towards the Kshatriya, the Funnels immediately started lashing out at their wielder, showing that Banagher had somehow managed to seize control of them. Even from the outside, it was clear that Marida was panicking a little at having one of her most trusted weapons turned against her like this, and that seemed to be all the distraction that the Unicorn needed to start tearing through the Kshatriya with its beam sabers.

This was the moment that Cagalli realized that whatever it was that was fighting Marida right now, it was certainly not Banagher. There was just no way that this fighting style could be utilized by someone who was as kind hearted and strong willed as Banagher Links, be it from this universe or the Cosmic Era, and that immediately told Cagalli exactly what she had to do. Gunning her machine forward to its maximum speed, Cagalli did not even pause for a second as she transformed the Diamond Akatsuki into Gundam mode and entered SEED Burst mode of her as she shouted, "STOP IT NOW, BOTH OF YOU!"

The blonde's cry caused both combatants to stop in their tracks and allow them to see something that no one was expecting. Mere seconds after she had triggered her SEED Burst, the Diamond Akatsuki's cockpit's display suddenly gained a shimmering, luminescent green tint to it, while the diamond portions of the machine's armor seemed to emit a powerful glow that was not dissimilar to the one that the Unicorn Gundam's exposed psyco-frame was giving off at the moment, save for the difference in colors. This seemed to trigger a response from both of the two machines, as they both suddenly charged Cagalli as if they planned to attack her, but Cagalli did not let this concern her, as she simply deployed her machine's DRAGOONs and had them form an energy barrier between her and the two. The Unicorn attempted to take control of these bit-type weapons like it had Marida's Funnels, but Cagalli was determined to not let that happen, and her Gundam instantly released an energy wave of its own that seemed to tear the Funnels out of the Unicorn and the Kshatriya's control, and into hers. Using the newly acquired Funnels in combination with her DRAGOONs, Cagalli instantly disabled or destroyed any and all of the remaining weapons that the two mobile suits had, thinking that would prevent them from trying to do each other or her any more harm, but the two just seemed determined to fight it out, even if they had to do with nothing but their fists, so Cagalli immediately prepared to charge one of the two machines. She knew that doing so would leave her open for the other one to attack her, but for some reason, Cagalli just knew that it would not be a problem, and she blasted forward while firing the Diamond Akatsuki's arm blasters to discourage the two from trying to stop her charge.

Cagalli's strangely-formed hunch that she would not have to worry about leaving herself open soon proved true when Arcee suddenly appeared and tackled the Unicorn away from her, leaving her to stop the Kshatriya, which she did so with ease. As soon as Arcee had pinned the Unicorn down, she activated one of her arm blades and said, "Stand down Banagher! Don't make me have to tear you out of that cockpit."

"Arcee, no. That won't be necessary," Cagalli calmly informed the Autobot. In fact, the blonde had said those words so calmly that it actually disturbed Arcee a little, but after a moment, she realized that there was a bit of a strain in her words when she had spoken.

"Cagalli, are you okay," Arcee asked as she turned her attention to the gold and diamond mobile suit while making sure that the Unicorn Gundam remained well pinned.

"I'm…I'm fine," Cagalli insisted, but she was honestly not entirely sure of that herself, as that ringing she had heard the first time she had fought with Banagher and Marida had now returned much more loudly than before, and in addition to that, she was suddenly hearing voices in her head, almost like someone had opened up the incessant chatter of a massive party and made sure that only she could hear it. After doing her best to calm herself down and regain her focus, Cagalli found two voices in particular starting to break through the din, and she eventually identified them as the voices of Banagher and Marida. Finding something she recognized allowed Cagalli something to focus on, which seemed to help her nerves a little more, and then, a flurry of images suddenly exploded before her.

Cagalli was not really able to make out everything that she was seeing, but she was able to interrupt enough to realize that what she was seeing was actually Banagher and Marida's memories. While Banagher's were actually rather tame, it was Marida's that made Cagalli start feeling like she was about to cry, as she saw things about the Kshatriya pilot's past that were just flat our horrible. Nearly everything she saw could only be considered as the kind of thing that no human being should ever have to go through, right up until the point where she saw Marida meeting Zinnerman for the first time, and that was when the memories started to improve into something a bit more pleasant. Seeing all these things finally allowed Cagalli to understand why Marida had such a cynical view about her life's value as a pilot, and somehow she knew that Banagher was seeing the same things as her.

"So many horrible tragedies…it's almost hard to believe that even now, there are still such terrible people in the world," Cagalli quietly whispered.

"No one should have to endure that kind of thing," Banagher's voice suddenly said. "We should be trying to understand each other better. If only people would stop being so narrow minded about the world and how it works, they could see that we all desire the same thing."

"People will never change," Marida cut in just as suddenly as Banagher had. "They'll always see an enemy somewhere that needs to be destroyed, and they'll always try to find some reason to fight and kill."

"But even so…" Banagher started to say.

"Yes…even so," Marida agreed, knowing what Banagher was thinking, and somehow, Cagalli knew as well.

"Even so," Cagalli nodded in agreement. At last, the two, glowing mobile suits returned to their natural states, and with help from Banagher, Cagalli started bringing the Kshatriya back up to the _Nahel Argama_ , which had been waiting close by for some time now.

Arcee just stood by watching the three machines retreat to the Federation ship, until she finally allowed herself a small smile. She was not entirely sure what had happened at the end there, but somehow she just knew that Cagalli had managed to prevent things from escalating any further than they could have in that battle. She may not know how it was possible, but that did not mean that she did not have some sort of suspicion on the matter. Before she began her own return to the ship, Arcee had to give one, soft comment, if for no other reason, than to hear it aloud for herself. "Be it normal or even Transformer Gundams, they always seem to come through with a new surprise that can start to change things for the better."

* * *

A few hours later, the four were soon back aboard the _Nahel Argama_ , with both Banagher and Marida being brought to the ship's infirmary. Cagalli and Arcee were left to receive a light chewing out from Daguza, but when the two pointed out that they had managed to get the Unicorn and Banagher back without endangering any civilian lives, needlessly, Daguza found all of his arguments vanishing in an instant, only to be replaced by the faintest of smiles that only people who knew him or who had been either a well-trained politician or soldier would have been able to catch. All smiles quickly vanished when Marida's condition was brought to light, as it was nothing short of abominable, and consisted of details that some would rather not repeat or say aloud. When it was made clear that Marida would not survive an interrogation under their care, the _Nahel Argama_ 's captain agreed that it would be better to let the woman be left to the care of their headquarters. Aside from this, the only other real developments were the brief conversation that Banagher and Cagalli shared with Marida, in which the Kshatriya pilot made them promise that they would not lose their strong wills to the machines that they piloted like she had in the past. Neither of them felt like they were in a position to refuse, so they both just nodded in response to this before leaving Marida to rest. Now, they were just standing in the pilot's ready room looking out at their mobile suits along with Arcee, who was standing with them in her Holo-Form, thinking about what had transpired in silence.

Banagher ended up being the one to finally break the silence when he asked, "So what happened back there? Your machine seemed to change in a way similar to how the Unicorn does when the NTD is activated, but you said that the Diamond Akatsuki wasn't supposed to have a psyco-frame, right?"

"That's right," Cagalli nodded. "I honestly don't really know what happened either. All know is that one minute I was triggering my SEED Burst mode like I always have, and then, things just started to…blank out on me, or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that I suddenly started to see all the best ways of settling that whole matter before it got any worse. I don't really know how to describe it. It was almost as though all of my senses were amped up to a level I didn't even know they had before."

"Are you saying you gained a new awareness," Banagher asked, thinking that it sounded like Cagalli had suddenly become a Newtype.

"No, not quite," Cagalli disputed. "It was more like…like something I had always had but never realized until just recently. I know, it doesn't make any sense at all, but that's the only way I can really describe it."

"What about the fact that the machine suddenly has a psyco-frame," Banagher pointed out.

Cagalli let out a tired sigh in response before revealing, "I've gone over everything I've ever known and read about the machine's specifications, either on my own or with others, and I can't even recall one time that it was mentioned that there was even a suspicion that it could have possessed a feature that was unique to this universe, and yet now, after looking through its specs again just recently, I find that it is there, along with some type of system that appears to be something like a watered down version of your machine's NTD. I just don't get how that's possible."

It was at this point that Arcee decided to join the conversation and put her theory forward. "Maybe we weren't supposed to know it was there until now," Arcee suggested.

That had earned her a pair of confused and weird looks from both humans as the blonde asked, "What do you mean, Arcee?"

"I remember talking with Ironhide, Erica Simmons, and our universe's Banagher once about the Transformer Gundams, and they admitted that they did not really know just what the extent of the machines' abilities could inevitably be," Arcee explained. "Since they possess both an artificial T-Cog and Energon Reactor Cores, there was a chance that the potential they could possess was as vast as that of a typical Cybertronian. They even had a few theories that suggested that there could be a chance that the machines could gain their own sentience, if only in a limited form of some type, but like I said, it was all theories. Really at most, the closest they could come to that would be that they could be influenced and granted certain gifts by Primus like some Transformers sometimes have, such as the Primes."

"Are you saying that Cagalli's machine gained a psyco-frame because this…Primus wanted it to," Banagher asked.

"Like I said, it's just a guess. There's really no way to know for sure," Arcee repeated.

"But why wait until now to make it known," Cagalli asked.

"Maybe it couldn't be known until now," Arcee proposed. "Think about it; until we arrived in this universe, we had never even so much as heard of a psyco-frame or really anything that's common to the Universal Century, so if there was a way to awaken such abilities, it would make some sense that it would only happen after we were exposed to what such abilities could accomplish, like by traveling to this dimension where they are pretty much the norm in some cases."

"There's just no way to know for sure, right," Banagher asked, and Arcee could do nothing more than nod.

Seeing as they really had no way of knowing or even arguing with what few theories they actually had, the three decided to just let it rest and accept the new-found gift that Cagalli and her machine now seemed to possess graciously. With all said and done, the three resumed staring off into the hangar where the two Gundams stood, proud and tall, as some kind of signal that in the end, everything would work out for the best for everyone in whatever journey or hardship they were facing at the moment.

* * *

 **Location: Earth, Main Universe**

Banagher had just finished climbing into the cockpit of the machine he and Erica had spent so much time working on in secret. The idea they had when they started developing this machine was that it would be a last-resort trump card to use in case of a dire situation that had led the Gundam Team and the Autobots to require additional reinforcements, or in case one or the other were not able to help at any point in time, but Banagher never would have dreamed he would have been the one to become the pilot of the machine. It was not that he could not do it, he was more than well-versed in the matters of mobile suit combat due to his time spent keeping Audrey safe while she was still in hiding, but he had made himself and Audrey a promise that he would try to avoid piloting another mobile suit again if he could avoid it. Right now though, it was clear that it was unavoidable, but that did not mean that he still felt a little bad that he had not said anything before dashing out to take this machine out.

 _"Banagher, what the hell are you doing,"_ the normally kind, patient voice of Erica Simmons suddenly snapped over his radio as her image appeared on the screen before him.

"I'm going out there, and I'm using this machine to do it," Banagher calmly replied.

 _"Banagher, think this through,"_ Erica pleaded. _"That thing was designed to be piloted by someone who had the potential to be a Gundam pilot, or even just a very high-level ace pilot. You're not either one of those things; there's no telling whether or not you'll even survive! Think of Audrey and how she would feel if you were to die!"_

"I am," Banagher said. "I know full well what that would do to her, but I also know what she would feel if she knew that I had the power to make a difference in this and just stood by doing nothing. This is my choice. I have to go; otherwise, there won't be a future for me, for Audrey, or any of us."

Erica could clearly see that Banagher was determined to do this no matter what, and that was just from what he had just said to her, so when that was coupled with the determined look he held on his face, she found herself unable to do anything more than sigh and say she would open the hangar doors for him before making one simple request. _"Make sure you come back alive. The last thing we need is to lose you, especially in Audrey's case."_

"Understood," Banagher nodded, and with that, the comm. line cut off. Soon enough, the doors to the underground hangar began opening up, allowing sunlight to be cast down on the large, white mobile suit with a single, long horn. As Banagher looked over the various systems of this machine, checking to make sure that the Decepticon Hunter System, or DHS, was working properly, he took a deep, calming breath, and somehow, he felt himself overcome with a feeling of ease, almost like he was doing something that he was meant to do for a long time. Sitting there in that cockpit, right at that moment, it all just felt one way to Banagher, a feeling that was only enhanced when he announced his launch. If felt right.

"Banagher Links. Unicorn Gundam, launching!"

* * *

 **Teletraan I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID:** **ORB-CX01 Diamond Akatsuki Gundam**

 **Pilot: Orb Co-Chief Representative and Sol Federation Co-Leader Cagalli Yula Athha Zala**

 **History: The successor to the Akatsuki, unlike most of the other Transformer Gundams, the Diamond Akatsuki is more of an upgrade to the original Akatsuki than an entirely new machine that was made with a redesigned version of the specs for the mobile suit that has been described as an embodiment of Lord Uzumi Nara Athha's legacy.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: The default close-combat weapons of all Transformer Gundams, the Diamond Akatsuki's blades are similar in design to the wrist blades wielded by Lieutenant Commander Bumblebee, leader of the Autobot Earth Division**

 **Arm Blasters: The default long-range combat weapons of all Transformer Gundams, like the Pure Impulse, the Diamond Akatsuki's blasters can easily be compared to those of Arcee**

 **Alt Mode: A Sea Plane, which is actually quite appropriate given the machine's pilot is from the island nation of Orb**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS AND FEATURES:**

 **"Kai Shiranui" Multi-Purpose Pack: A enhancement pack that combines the features of the original Akastuki's Space and Sky packs so that the machine is able to utilize all the weapons of both sets of equipment in any battlefield, no matter the location**

 **"Yata-No-Kagami" Anti-Beam Defensive Reflection System: More often identified as the reflective armor, this feature is what the suit's entire armor is coated with, and what allows the machine to deflect beam fire or reflect the shots back to their original targets. The system has been tested and proven to be capable of blocking and withstanding a blast from a positron cannon without the machine sustaining any damage**

 **Twin-Beam Saber**

 **Defensive Shield: An optional physical shield that can be carried in hand or mounted on the machine's left arm, this shield is coated with the same type of reflective armor as the rest of the mobile suit, and also has the capability of creating an energy beam shield**

 **Kai High-Energy Beam Cannons: Like the weapons utilized in the Akatsuki's Sky Pack, these weapons are mounted are positioned under the shoulders while in use, and are mounted on the Multi-Purpose Pack of the machine.**

 **Guard-DRAGOON System: Though much more similar to the Guided Mobile Turret System of the Akatsuki, these weapons are more often referred to as DRAGOONs due to how similar they are to the normal DRAGOONs, and as such, they are referred to by the same name by most, if not everyone. Like the remote weapons of the Akatsuki, each unit mounts a single beam cannon and can function as a beam shield emitter when used together with at least one or more of the other units, which allows the machine the ability to create an energy shield that could surround an entire Autobot ship in the class of the _Omega II_.**

 **Psyco-Frame: A feature that was not known to be present until recently, this feature's exact limits are rather unknown at this time. One of the most basic features that it grants is the ability to allow the pilot to seize control of another machine's bit-type weapons such as DRAGOONs and utilize them as their own, be they those of an enemy or an ally. Another feature is an increase in the pilot's spacial awareness, with a third being that it can project an invisible energy shield for a short-burst of time**

* * *

 _ **AN: Ya see? What'd I tell you? One LONG chapter.**_

 _ **Cagalli: No kidding, but I'm certainly not complaining.**_

 _ **Arcee: Me neither.**_

 _ **Shinn: Like either of you would be.**_

 _ **Elita: Hey, why are you complaining, a lot of the other Autobots and I are the ones who are basically being made background characters for this thing.**_

 _ **AN: Yeah sorry about that Elita. That's not really intentional, but at this point, there's really not much we can really do for you and most of the others.**_

 _ **Moving on to the more important matters, in the case of this chapter, I'm sure you can all see that I had combined certain elements of the plot for the first three episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, and that was pretty much intentional. Sure most of the other chapters up until now were either an original adventure that took place in the middle of the series or afterwards instead of being extremely close to the start, but there was really no better time to place our femm fatale duo than there if I wanted the story to be effective.**_

 _ **Now, I'm sure you all think that Cagalli and Arcee did not learn some valuable life lesson like the others have up til now, but really, after all those two have been through, what kind of lesson could they really learn here? In point of fact, they were actually the teachers this time around, or at least Cagalli was, and really the only reason why this adventure even happened was so that Cagalli could receive the new special feature of her Transformer Gundam.**_

 _ **While we're on the subject, let me make this as clear as possible. No, Cagalli has not become a Newtype, that is something that's specific to the Universal Century. Really, it's more like the Diamond Akatsuki's newly revealed psyco-frame just grants its pilot an increased awareness that could come close to that of a Newtype. Sorry for any confusion that might have caused.**_

 _ **Finally, the case of both Banaghers and U.C. Audrey. Well did you really think that we would only be seeing doppelgangers for Transformers during this arc? It really shouldn't be that big a surprise that we would see the U.C. versions of Banagher and Mineva when we reached this chapter, and that's kind of the point. In this story's main timeline, those two had already gotten through that stage of their journey together, while the U.C. versions are just starting out in this story. Cagalli's intervention is something that is helping to give them a little push in the right direction.**_

 _ **Also, I got a lot of people asking me if I was going to have the Cybertron Cosmic Era's Banagher become the pilot of the Unicorn Gundam, or at least this timeline's version of it. I'll admit, originally, I was not going to do that. Really, he was just going to be there for the sake of being there and having another technical genius on the team. He was not going to become a mobile suit pilot, let alone a Gundam pilot, but after thinking it over for a while, and finding the perfect place and way to debut him as such, the idea started to grow on me, and here's the end results.**_

 ** _I'd also like to confess that I was originally planning to do a bit more with some of the scenes that played out in this chapter, like when Cagalli and Banagher were meeting with Full Frontal, or their encounter with Marida afterwards, but the chapter had started to drag out to the point of being too long for my tastes, so I had to cut it short. Just something for you all to look forward to in the Gundam SEED Prime Series: Deleted Scenes one-shots collection I started up back during the time of the first story. I really need to update that again someday soon..._**

 ** _Ah well. Let's just go on and get to the preview for next chapter, which will see another Transformers world. Oh, and by the way, the next chapter's going to be the last one before the big unveiling of what makes the world Optimus Prime and Kira ended up in so special. Pretty exciting, huh? Almost makes me sad that I'm only previewing the next chapter, which, in case you haven't figured it out by now, is going to be featuring Wheeljack and good ol' Mu La Flaga! Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _A return to the various universes and worlds that feature the Transformers sees Wheeljack and Mu La Flaga facing a different kind of battle amongst the Transformers, as they find that the heroic Autobots vastly outnumber the 'Cons of this universe, which is comprised of both Decepticons and Predacons. Will they find themselves just as unimpressed with the villainous Transformers of this universe as Lunamaria and Crosshairs were with the ones they had encountered in the time of Transformers Cybertron? And just what sort of power or lesson could either of these two men who make the impossible possible gain from this odd timeline? Next time or Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 27: Wrecker Protocol** ** _. Prepare to unleash a power unlike anything you've possessed before, Star Force Strike!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	27. Wrecker Protocol

_**AN: Hey guys, we back again for another round of the adventures between dimensions in Gundam SEED Prime Chaos Hunters, and I am proud to say that this is the last adventure we see before the big, special chapter with Kira and Optimus that you've all been waiting for!**_

 ** _Wheeljack: You know, there's not really anything too special about this chapter._**

 ** _Mu: Yeah, I mean we barely really did that much, despite how long it is._**

 ** _Wheeljack: Which isn't very much when you compare it to last chapter._**

 ** _AN: Hey, last chapter was the longest chapter I've written for any story, so you guys don't really get to complain that much._**

 ** _Wheeljack: Considering we're the ones that act as the stars of this chapter, I think we have a right to complain a little._**

 ** _AN: [sighs] Some people...well, you guys just move along to the chapter. I've got a couple of divas to deal with._**

 ** _Wheeljack and Mu: Hey!_**

 ** _AN: I'm just calling it as I'm seeing it guys._**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 27: Wrecker Protocol**

 **Location: Wherever Mu and Wheeljack Are**

Mu was very well aware of what typically happens to people who get sucked into mysterious, weird energy anomalies in space, and that is because, believe it or not, Mu La Flaga was actually a bit of a _Star Trek_ fan. Not a very extreme one, mind you, but still a fan all the same. He blamed his wife for getting him hooked on the series when he found out that Murrue was a very big fan of the original series herself. Point is, when he, Wheeljack, and the others ended up being sucked into that weird anomaly that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Mu was expecting a lot of different, weird things to happen; ranging from ending up in a parallel universe where the Autobots, they, and the rest of their friends were evil while the 'Cons were good guys, to a universe with a similar yet frighteningly different history, such as one where he ended up married to Natarle, Murrue and Kira were lovers, and Lacus and Cagalli were both gay and in a relationship with one another, while the Autobots were being led by Ultra Magnus and Optimus was just the captain of a small, rag-tag construction crew that was dragged into a situation that required them to be combat-capable. The list of various different things he was expecting was strange and frightening to him in so many ways, and yet somehow, the place that they ended up in was somehow scarier, despite how normal it actually appeared to be on the surface.

It was clear as day that they were on Earth, given the number of humans that were around, but it was also obvious that it was at a much earlier point in the human timeline than that of the Cosmic Era; most likely the Early to Mid-Twenty First Century, if Mu had to guess. As a result of this, Mu had to make sure he either remained airborne in the Star Force Strike or just hid his mobile suit very well while Wheeljack elected to cruise around the city in vehicle mode in an attempt to avoid causing any kind of panicked commotion. They were both very thankful that when they first arrived, they had landed out in the middle of a field with no one around for miles, aside from a strange woman with an annoyingly grating voice who was moaning something about another vacation being ruined by "those robots," so they were able to avoid any initial panic in their sudden arrival from out of thin air. After a while though, Mu finally decided to hide his mobile suit in an abandoned warehouse so that he would not go stir-crazy from sitting in the Star Force Strike's cockpit all day for who knew how long, leaving the machine in its Sky Grasper mode when he did in case someone did find it in its hiding place. Once they had done that, Wheeljack gladly gave Mu a lift around the city for a while so that they could get the lay of the land while gathering any information that they could about this place.

Their search for information was not all that helpful, at least when they were just cruising around in Wheeljack's vehicle mode, but after stopping to listen in on some recent news reports and other similar accounts of recent events, they found out that there were in fact Autobots here, but not the ones that they knew. Sure, they found some familiar names like Optimus Prime, Prowl, Hot Shot, and Ironhide, but they could clearly see these were not the same 'Bots that the two knew just from the vehicle modes alone. In addition to this, it sounded like these Autobots had already been fighting both Predacons and Decepticons for some time now, and the 'Bots vastly outnumbered the 'Cons in this universe. If Mu and Wheeljack were not well-trained and experienced soldiers, they would probably wonder why the Autobots had not managed to secure victory over the 'Cons here, but since they were such things, both Wrecker and Gundam pilot knew that having greater numbers does not always determine victory in a battle, or a war. After taking in all these various differences, the two were able to come to the inescapable conclusion that they were in fact in an alternate universe, but it still left a few questions that they absolutely had to figure out the answers to.

"How about we start with how in the name of Primus we're supposed to get home? Preferably before we don't have a home to get back to," Wheeljack suggested when Mu mentioned this aloud.

"Hey, what makes you think I'd know the answer to that," Mu asked with a small chuckle. "I normally leave that kind of thing up to the tech guys like Ratchet, Fixit, Kira, or really anyone else who actually has something of a science mind to them. Besides, you're the one who should have ideas on that already."

"Well sure, but I doubt we'd be able to get any of the necessary resources to try any of them, or that we wouldn't accidentally blow a lot of stuff up as a result," Wheeljack admitted, and Mu just knew that the Wrecker was smirking the entire time he was saying that, even if there was a strong chance that it was true. Wheeljack grew serious again when he moved onto the next question that was bothering them. "Do you think we should risk contacting the Autobots of this dimension?"

"Well considering that we haven't exactly found anything that would suggest that these Autobots are evil, I doubt there would really be that much of a risk in doing so," Mu reasoned with a shrug.

"Yeah, but somehow I can hear Magnus citing regulations to me like I was a sparkling in school who broke the rules on a regular basis just for kicks," Wheeljack stated. "After all, this is an unfamiliar world to us, so making contact with locals here, despite them being Autobots, would probably fall under a violation of those regs that outline why it's a bad idea to make contact with locals of an alien world."

"Since when has that ever stopped you from doing something you wanted to do," Mu asked in a joking tone, but underneath that, he was hiding a bit of concern for Wheeljack. It was no secret that out of all the Autobots, the legendary Wrecker and Ultra Magnus had the most problems with getting along with each other, mostly due to how vastly their personalities tended to conflict with one another. Almost the minute that Magnus was assigned to the Earth Division, Wheeljack had nearly decided to quit working with the Earth Division in favor of going solo, but thankfully, being the good wingman he is, Mu was able to convince Wheeljack that he could do more good with the team than he could on his own, preventing Wheeljack from making a stupid decision. Things may have gotten a little better since then, but that did not mean that they were completely better since the two would sometimes butt heads with each other if they were in the same room for too long, or even on the same mission with different ideas on how to proceed.

Wheeljack must have missed the concern behind Mu's attempt at humor, because he just chuckled in response to the joke and replied, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Still, maybe we should avoid talking to the Autobots of this universe. Even some Cybertronians can be considered crazy if they show up and start talking about a bunch of odd topics like being from another dimension."

Before Mu could reply, an explosion suddenly erupted from somewhere on the other side of the city, prompting Wheeljack to screech to a halt in his travels while numerous civilians came running past them in a panic. "The Decepticons are attacking a power plant," the two heard someone shout as he ran past.

After waiting a few more minutes for the panicked crowd to disperse, Mu finally said, "Well, looks like we're not able to avoid it now."

"Nope, so let's go wreck some 'Cons," Wheeljack smirked in reply. The minute that Mu nodded in reply, Wheeljack immediately revved up his engine and made a hard u-turn so that they could head back to the warehouse to pick up the Star Force Strike, knowing that there was no way that Mu would be able to just sit back and watch while he did all the work.

* * *

What was supposed to be a simple engagement like all the other times that they had faced their foes had quickly turned out to be anything but for the Autobots. Instead of constantly trying to one-up each other in some subtle way like they normally did, the Predacons and the Decepticons were actually working together like an actual team, which was rather odd given that everyone knew just how much Sky-Byte hated Scourge and his team, but it made little difference, since at the moment, Optimus Prime and the Autobot Brothers were just barely holding their own, and that was with the added help of Team Bullet Train. Normally, Optimus would have contacted base by now to send out a request for reinforcements, but he knew full well that every other Autobot was currently either too far away or busy with something else at the moment, so there was little chance that they would make it in time to help.

After suffering the force of another barrage, the two enemy teams finally let up for a second so that they could take a moment to gloat over their seemingly assured victory, which was only punctuated by Sky-Byte's insufferably smug laughter. "What a pity. It seems that something can be said for actually working with one another instead of against each other, because at long last, we'll finally end the Autobots for good," the shark Predacon declared.

"Not all of the Autobots, but certainly some of their most powerful warriors, including Optimus Prime," Scourge corrected. "It's almost a pity that Ultra Magnus isn't here as well, seeing as he would finally see you put in your place, Prime, just like he has wanted to since coming here."

"Don't count us out just yet! There are still other Autobots out there to stand against you, and they'll be here any moment now," Optimus retorted in an attempt to bluff, though he knew that the chances of the 'Cons buying into it was practically nonexistent.

"Ha! If that were true, then they would've been here by now," Scourge scoffed, proving Optimus' point with little problem at all, and he then raised his blaster with his comrades doing the same with their own weapons. "This is the end for you and your Autobots, Optimus Prime. Now say farewell."

At that point, the Autobots could do nothing more than brace themselves for the oncoming onslaught that Scourge, Sky-Byte, and the Decepticons and Predacons were about to unload on them, but to their surprise, it never came, and that was because, someone ended up firing on them from above. "What?! Where did that come from," Sky-Byte shouted as he started looking around while running in a panicked attempt to avoid getting hit by the blasts that were still raining down on them.

"Why don't you try looking up, Fish-Breath," someone shouted, and that was what drew everyone's attention skyward so that they could see a blue, red, and white plane flying in with its weapons still firing. This of course was Mu La Flaga in the Star Force Strike's Sky Grasper mode, but Optimus and his team did not know that yet, and neither did any of their enemies, which gave Mu an advantage.

While the two groups of 'Cons were busy regaining their bearings, Mu was able to swing around for another strafing attack that sent the 'Cons ducking for cover, or to be more accurate, it sent the Predacons running for cover while the Decepticons just endured the assault as best as they could, and they endured it quite well. Once Mu was forced to let up on his assault for a minute, five of the six Decepticons combined together into a massive robot that shouted out his name was Ruination, and the newly united combiner was surprisingly quick to start launching an assault on the Hawk of Endymion. That did not last long, as Ruination was soon tripping over himself, courtesy of Wheeljack, who had just raced into the battlefield in vehicle mode, and managed to trip up the massive giant without even transforming yet. When he finally did, Wheeljack had to pause in wonder for a moment when he found himself shouting out his name and the word transform like he was in some kind of weird anime, but he quickly shook it off and readied his swords for action while activating his battle mask.

"Hey, who're these guys," one of the Predacons asked; this one being the skunk-like Transformer known as Gas Skunk.

"Someone new," Gas Skunk's toad-like friend, Slapper suggested.

"Yeah, we got that much, but I don't recognize them," the flying squirrel form of Dark Scream retorted.

"Oh, these Autobots just keeping getting stronger and stronger everyday! It infuriates me to no end," Sky-Byte grumbled.

"It doesn't matter how many soldiers you call in for backup, Optimus Prime. We'll destroy them all in the end," Scourge roared in response before letting loose a barrage of missiles from his shoulder cannons, directly at Wheeljack. He was soon left stunned when Wheeljack easily evaded all of his missiles and even deflected some of them with his two swords like they were nothing.

"Guess you haven't heard," Wheeljack quipped in reply to Scourge's earlier boasting. "As of now, you're all heading for the scrap yard, because Wreckers don't call for backup."

"We call for cleanup," Mu finished, drawing everyone's attention back to him in time to see that he had transformed the Star Force Strike into Gundam mode and was now lining up the machine's Cyber Beam Rifle to fire. Barely a minute later, Mu was firing a low-level shot from the weapon that hit Scourge dead-center, sending him tumbling away from the battlefield, and leaving only Ruination to stand against the two warriors of the Cosmic Era.

"They'll be cleaning you two up when I'm done with you," the Decepticon combiner declared before firing all of his guns at both the Gundam and the Wrecker. Thankfully, Mu was able to bring the Star Force Strike's shield to bare and instantly absorbed the energy from all of Ruination's blasts while Wheeljack just dodged and deflected them like a pro.

"That all you got," Wheeljack asked in a bored tone. "I've seen better effort from Vehicon drones than you're putting out."

Ruination just growled in reply, and his lack of response in any form gave both Wheeljack and Mu a chance to swoop in and start their own fast, high-powered assault on Ruination. The two did not let up on their attack for a second until Ruination finally collapsed into the five Decepticons that made him up once again, forcing Scourge to signal for a full retreat that his forces gladly obeyed. When Mu and Wheeljack turned to where Sky-Byte and the Predacons were currently hiding, the bestial Transformers instantly started quaking in their boots, all the while wondering what the two were going to do to them now that they had effortlessly handled the Decepticons. The two let them stew in those thoughts for a few more minutes until finally, they both said one word to the group. "Boo."

The effect was so instantaneous that it was comical, as the four Predacons were instantly running away screaming their heads off in an attempt to get away and keep themselves from ending up like their Decepticon allies, leaving Mu and Wheeljack to just laugh in their wake as they did. "Wow, I don't think I remember a time it was ever that easy," Wheeljack chuckled as he started to calm down.

"I know, right," Mu agreed. "Why can't they all be like that?"

"It would seem we owe you thanks, friends," a new voice suddenly said from behind them, drawing their attention to the Autobots of this universe. "But if you don't mind my asking, just who are you two?"

Mu and Wheeljack suppressed any need to give a smart remark about introducing oneself before asking another person for their name, and simply elected to reply to the question without any trouble. "Name's Wheeljack of the Autobot Wreckers," the sword-wielding Autobot replied.

"And I'm Mu La Flaga, pilot of the Star Force Strike Gundam, and captain in the Orb Military," the blonde human stated as he stepped out of his cockpit.

"Whoa, you mean that you were actually just a human in a large machine the whole time," the blue and white Autobot exclaimed in near child-like surprise.

"Don't sound too shocked or anything," Mu shrugged with an easy going smile.

"More like affronted," the white Autobot of the group said in an official tone that was befitting of a law-enforcement officer. "Humans have no business getting involved in a battle between Autobots and Predacons, let alone a battle between Autobots and Decepticons. That was reckless endangerment on your part."

"Considering that the 'Cons have been targeting our world for so long now, and that I've been fighting against them for years alongside pilots and soldiers that are younger yet more skilled than me, I highly doubt that," Mu commented, leading the police 'Bot to growl in response.

"Yep, definitely this universe's version of Prowl," Wheeljack said.

"Wait…how do you know my name," the police Autobot asked, confirming his identity for the two.

"And what do ya mean by 'this universe'," a green and white Autobot inquired in a western accent.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Mu replied. "Jackie and I are both from another universe where Autobots and humans have been living, working, and even fighting side-by-side with each other for a few years now, and in our universe, Prowl is a member of a group of combiners known as the Protectobots."

"Hey, ya hear that, Bro? You're part of a team like the Bullet Trains and the Build Team," the blue Autobot said as he nudged Prowl a little.

"That's not important at the moment," the Optimus of this dimension said, getting everyone back on track. "Right now, we should probably hear the entire story behind how you two are here, but we shouldn't do so out in the open like this. I hope you don't mind following us back to our base so we can talk without anyone overhearing us."

"Whoa there, Optimus. You sure it's a good idea to bring these two home to the ranch," the western sounding Autobot asked. "What if they're a couple of Megatron's lackeys in disguise?"

While it was good to note that this universe was still dealing with Megatron, Mu and Wheeljack were a bit insulted by this guy suspecting that they might be working with him, but before they could retort, Optimus quickly said, "If they were with Megatron, then I doubt that they would be so quick to attack Scourge and Sky-Byte's forces like that, X-Brawn. They seem like honest and loyal Autobots to me."

"Trust me, we are," Wheeljack reassured as calmly as possible. "There aren't any 'Bots out there that would be more loyal to the Autobots than the Wreckers, except for maybe Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, himself."

While the Autobots of this universe were a bit confused by some of what Wheeljack said, it was good enough for them to start heading out and leading them back to their base, with Mu following as closely as he could after climbing back into the Star Force Strike's cockpit again, wondering the entire time what this Autobot base would be like.

* * *

On the trip back to this universe's Autobot Base, Mu and Wheeljack had a chance to learn a bit more about this universe's history in reference to the Transformers, and a few things they learned were a bit surprising to them, but not by that much. In this universe, instead of the Decepticons creating the Predacons, it was the Predacons who created the Decepticons, a fact that both Mu and Wheeljack were sure would be rather considered insulting by a certain Predacon back home, and that was without the fact that the Predacons of this universe were a complete joke compared to what the two normally dealt with in terms of any types of 'Cons. In addition to this, the Autobots, while considered as robots in disguise, were well-known throughout the Earth and easily considered the leading authorities when dealing with the 'Cons in this universe, unlike back home where the 'Bots had to really work at it to earn such a position. The thing that really intrigued Wheeljack was how this universe's Ultra Magnus compared to the one back in their own universe.

Unlike Wheeljack and Mu's Ultra Magnus, who was all about rules, regulations, and doing things by the book most of the time, the Ultra Magnus of this universe was a 'Bot that had a serious attitude problem a lot of times, and typically went against usual regulations when dealing with a threat, sometimes even going so far as to defy orders that Optimus would give. Upon hearing all of this, Wheeljack could not stop himself from asking, "Any chance we could take your Magnus back with us? We'll give you ours in exchange."

"Jackie," Mu snapped indignantly.

"What? I'm just kidding," Wheeljack insisted, although Mu did not miss it when a moment later, the Wrecker had mumbled, "Mostly."

By the time they had reached the Autobot Base, the two warriors from another universe were now well caught up on the history of this universe, and all that was left for them to do was meet the rest of the Autobot team from this universe, which they doubted was very likely since Optimus stated that most of the other Autobots were busy with other missions or personal matters that would let them keep the cover they maintained to prevent their enemies from normally tracking and finding them or their base. There was one person that they were able to meet though, and that was the artificial intelligence that helped the Autobots coordinate their efforts around the globe, which went by the name of Tactical Artificial Intelligence, or T-AI for short. Mu and Wheeljack had been expecting a bodiless voice, much like Teletraan I typically was, but instead, they found themselves greeted with a holographic avatar that took on the appearance of a young, human girl in a maroon uniform that was similar to one worn by Japanese police officers. That had put off the two for a minute, almost as much as the fact that she was able to display emotions, self-awareness, and various other attributes, that were not usually typical of an AI, but they were eventually able to shake it off after a little while.

Still, Mu had to ask, "Any particular reason why you chose this appearance for your holographic avatar, or even why you need one at all?"

"Is there a problem with either of those things," T-AI asked, challengingly.

"No, not at all," Mu quickly insisted as he raised his hands in surrender, not willing to take a chance on what might happen if he pissed off the AI.

"Still, seems like you're pretty advanced, even for a typical Cybertronian AI," Wheeljack commented.

"I was actually designed using some components of the old Teletraan I artificial intelligence, therefore, I am actually the daughter of Teletraan I," T-AI explained.

"Huh," was the only thing Mu could say in response to that before making his way over to Wheeljack. "Is it even possible for a computer to have a daughter on Cybertron like that," the mobile suit pilot whispered.

"How should I know," Wheeljack shrugged in an equally quiet tone. "But then again, anything is possible when it comes to a matter of the future."

If T-AI had heard any of the two's conversation, she had clearly ignored it, opting instead to update Optimus on the status of the other Autobots who were currently not at base before sending Team Bullet Train back out to what they were doing before being called in for action. The Autobot Brothers, on the other hand, were asked to stay behind so that they could help their two guests get better acquainted with their new surroundings, but not all of them were completely okay with the idea. "Uh, actually guys, I've gotta get back out there right away," the blue Autobot who had by now revealed his name to be Side Burn.

"And what would that be," Optimus asked.

"Uh…I was looking for a, uh…missing person," Side Burn said in a feeble attempt at lying, if you could even call it that.

"Missing person, huh? Yeah right, Side Burn! You just want to go out looking for red sports cars to chase after, like always," T-AI snapped, irritably.

"What?! No, of course not," Side Burn tried to protest. "Tried" being the operative word. "I was actually looking for a missing person…who just happened to be driving a red sports car. So, would it be okay if I just get going now?"

"The answer is no," both of Side Burn's brothers and T-AI all snapped in response, getting small smiles of good humor from both Wheeljack and Mu in response to what was unfolding before them.

"Heh, kinda reminds me of this one kid we had in the Wreckers back in the day," Wheeljack softly mused, only to find his mood falling quite a bit after that remark. "Hey, if you don't mind, I'm gonna hit the roads for a bit."

"I wouldn't advise that," Optimus argued. "You don't know your way around here, and I can't risk Megatron and the Decepticons getting their hands on you."

"Sorry, but that wasn't a request," Wheeljack stated, and like that, the Wrecker was back in vehicle mode again and racing out of the base.

Prowl was about to blow a gasket at Wheeljack's blatant lack of respect to a superior officer, when Mu suddenly said, "Just let him go. He needs a minute to himself, anyway."

"Why? What's gotten into his saddle anyway," X-Brawn asked.

"Wheeljack's been a little down in recent years, even though he's back to doing what Wreckers do best: taking down Decepticons by any means necessary and taking on challenges that no other Autobot can," Mu explained. "Before our Magnus came in and started trying to reign the Wreckers in from being uncontrollable loose cannons, Wheeljack considered the Wreckers to be the best unit in the Autobots for doing the jobs with the highest risk. It's still technically true, but he kinda hates how the Wreckers seemed to be bogged down by all the rules and regulations that Magnus insists on abiding by nowadays, or at least, that's how it seems in his opinion. You heard that motto he and I shouted out back at that power plant when we showed up to help you guys right?"

"Yeah, I remember that," Side Burn nodded. "Something like 'Wreckers don't call for backup, they call for clean up.' Right?"

"Exactly," Mu confirmed. "And that's the way that Wheeljack would prefer to remember the Wreckers; not as a group that got jobs done while still doing things by the book, but as a group that did whatever it took to win against the enemy. In his words, he wants to remember the Wreckers glory days just like that before the rust sets in, and lately, it's been getting harder and harder to do so."

"Basically, the buckaroo is stuck livin' in the past and not wanting to saddle up and ride on to whatever the future may have for him in case it ends up being better," X-Brawn clarified.

"I can understand how it feels to be concerned about change, but that does not mean he should ignore that there are sometimes better ways to do things and that he'll have friends that will always be willing to have his back no matter what," Optimus stated.

Mu nodded in agreement, because he felt the same way as Optimus. Sure, Wheeljack still sometimes referred to him as his wingman, but lately, it felt like the tough, legendary Wrecker was having a hard time seeing that his friends were still proudly standing alongside him, even though they were changing along with the times. He could only hope that Wheeljack could learn to see that sooner rather than later, because otherwise, it was not going to end well for anyone, including Wheeljack.

* * *

Wheeljack was not sure how long it had been since he left the base, but he was certainly positive that he had gone a very fair distance from it by the time he started to cool down a little. It was not like he intended to blow out of the place like he had, but it seemed like every time something came up that reminded him of the old days in the Wreckers, he always felt the need to start blowing something up, and if not that, then definitely a feeling that was only most closely matched to how he felt when he lost Glyph so many years ago. Every day, it seemed to Wheeljack that the good old days of the real Wreckers were getting fainter and fainter in his processor, or even to just history in general, and Wheeljack had always wanted to remember how he and his old team were at their best over how the Wreckers had become now, so naturally he was anything but happy about the fact that things were unfolding in such a way.

Wheeljack was eventually stirred from his thoughts when he noticed a large, blue and white car-carrier racing along the road a short distance ahead of him, and if the Autobot signal he was getting from the guy was anything to go by, then there was very little chance that this was not the Ultra Magnus of this universe that Wheeljack had heard about. Thinking this would probably be his chance to at least meet the Autobot with an attitude problem, Wheeljack decided to speed up a little so that he could keep an even pace with Magnus. This did not seem to go unnoticed, because Magnus was soon accelerating forward even faster than he was before. Still, it was not fast enough for Wheeljack to lose sight of him, and there was very little doubt in the Wrecker's processor that this was likely because the brother of Optimus Prime was leading him somewhere, so Wheeljack figured he might as well see what it was Magnus was hoping to lead him to. After a while, the two came to a large open field, well outside the city limits, which made Wheeljack wonder if Ultra Magnus intended to fight him with as little interference as possible. It certainly would have made sense, given how Magnus could have interrupted his following him so far, but even Wheeljack knew better than to recklessly jump to conclusions like that. A lot of good Wreckers had nearly lost their lives doing such a thing, but the notion was starting to seem more and more likely when Ultra Magnus suddenly began assuming his robot mode.

"Ultra Magnus, transform," the large Autobot shouted as the rear half of his vehicle mode detached to form his legs, while the cab changed into his upper body before reconnecting with his legs again.

This prompted Wheeljack to assume his own bipedal mode, and like the first time he had done so during that first encounter with Optimus' team, he changed while shouting out, "Wheeljack, transform!"

For a short time after that, the two just stood where they were, staring each other down like two opponents in a duel, until finally, Ultra Magnus raised his very large, heavily armed blaster at Wheeljack, prompting the Wrecker to raise his hands in a placating gesture. "Easy, big fella; we're on the same side," Wheeljack stated.

"Yeah, and I'm Megatron," Magnus retorted. "How come I've never seen you before?"

"Right, cause you've seen every Autobot in existence, right," Wheeljack quipped in reply, and though he did not give any significant outward response, Wheeljack was still able to catch it when Ultra Magnus' mouth twitched up a little in response. "Anyway, name's Wheeljack, but my friends call me Jackie, as for why you've never heard of me, that's cause I'm from another universe."

"Another universe; yeah right," Magnus scoffed, but he then surprised Wheeljack by lowering his weapon and saying, "Still, no denying that your armor, weaponry, and various other aspects about you are not exactly typical of the average Transformer, so I suppose it could make sense in some way."

"Wait? Just like that? I tell you that I'm an Autobot from another universe, and you're just gonna shrug and be like 'Hey, that's cool,' just like that," Wheeljack asked.

"Hey, this kind of thing is Optimus' problem, not mine, but if you do turn out to be a threat, then I'll be the one who puts you in the ground as I tell Optimus I told him so," Magnus shrugged before turning to leave

At that point, Wheeljack just smirked with a chuckle and said, "Yeah, I definitely like you better than our Ultra Magnus already."

That got Magnus' attention, as he turned back to Wheeljack and asked, "Oh really? And what's your Ultra Magnus like?"

"Just your typical perfect soldier, do everything by-the-book kind of 'Bot that doesn't want to take risks if the risk goes against regulations. The guy still sometimes gets on my case just for setting off a grenade in a confined space, even though I was hoping to make that space a raging monster's stomach," Wheeljack replied.

"Ugh, tell me you're not serious," Magnus practically begged. "A guy like that is supposed to be me in another lifetime? You've gotta be kidding me."

"I wish," Wheeljack shrugged.

The two were both silent for a minute before Magnus finally asked, "Tried to toss a grenade into a monster's stomach, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Wheeljack smirked in reply. "And that's one of the more boring stories of stuff I've done over my time fighting 'Cons."

"Keep talking," Magnus prompted in barely contained excitement, leading Wheeljack to smirk again and decide that he was definitely starting to like this version of Ultra Magnus.

* * *

"…so then, these guys, these idiot 'Cons, start to think they're better off sticking close together, and I'm basically thinking they're not even worth my signature maneuver, so instead I just arm my blaster, fire a single shot, and send 'em all up in smoke," Wheeljack concluded with a laugh, drawing a similar reaction out of Ultra Magnus in response to the Wrecker's most recent war story.

"Ha! That is impressive. Almost reminds me of this one time I took down an entire Predacon platoon with nothing but my bare hands," Ultra Magnus said.

Wheeljack could not help but smirk even wider in response to this remark before he said, "Okay, I'm now starting to seriously consider figuring out if there's a way we can take you back with us in place of our Ultra Magnus, 'cause you sir, are prime Wrecker material."

"As much as I'd love the chance to get a real challenge like what you seem to get back in your universe, I'd probably have to pass on that offer anyway. I've got a few things here that I'd like to settle," Magnus shrugged. "Starting with getting what should've been rightfully mine."

"And that would be…" Wheeljack prompted.

"The Matrix," Magnus revealed. "When the Autobots were sent to Earth, Optimus and I were both selected as candidates to lead our forces, but Optimus was chosen over me, even though I was always the better warrior with the greater amount of victories and honors from battles."

That drew Wheeljack's attention, because he had long since come to believe that only a Prime could pass the Matrix on to someone else. Clearly things worked slightly different with that type of thing in this dimension if that was any indication. That still left one thing unanswered for Wheeljack. "That why you're always out here by yourself instead of checking in at the Autobot Base of this universe," Wheeljack asked.

"Part of it," Magnus shrugged. "Most of those guys, I'll admit, they do alright, but they're all rank amateurs compared to me and what I'm capable of. Besides, I typically work better on my own."

"Yeah, I hear ya. Alone's usually less complicated and all that, right," Wheeljack nodded, gaining a nod in response from Magnus. "I used to think the same way; still do sometimes to be honest."

"What changed," Magnus asked.

"I joined the Wreckers, met my pal Bulkhead, and then my wingman Mu La Flaga," Wheeljack admitted. "They've had my back a lot in the past, but I still prefer things the way they used to be, before we had a guy like my universe's Ultra Magnus making the Wreckers go soft."

"I can kinda see why that would get under your plating," Ultra Magnus stated. "But I get the feeling that's not what's really bugging you at the moment, is it?"

It honestly amazed Wheeljack that this alternate version of an Autobot that annoyed him so much had already worked out that something was seriously bothering him. At that point, Wheeljack considered blowing Magnus off like he had the Autobots that were back at the base, but then again, Magnus was the only one present at the moment, and it could not hurt to tell someone something about his problem. "I'm not opposed to living in peaceful times, but I guess I never figured that living in peaceful times would mean that just about every good Wrecker who was left alive was going to start going soft," Wheeljack stated. "It always burns me up when that happens, but I never thought it would happen to nearly the entire unit."

Magnus just silently nodded to what Wheeljack said, and then allowed the silence that had fallen to hang for a moment or two before he decided he might as well try to say something that would help the Wrecker see what was wrong with his way of thinking. He silently had to wonder how Optimus could do something like this so easily all the time, but that did not mean he was not going to at least try to cheer him up. "You know, when Optimus was chosen to lead our people over me, I was ticked off, to put it mildly, and the first thing I did afterwards was take off on my own to find something or someone to take my problems out on. After that, things really just stayed that way, and all I really cared about for the longest time was finding the next guy I could take down as a kind of training for when I faced Optimus again and fought him for the Matrix. I wasn't responsible for anyone, and no one was responsible for me, and that was how I liked it. At least, that's what I told myself for a long time, until I finally came to Earth and met up with the Autobots again. Even though Optimus tried to take the peaceful route and bury the hatchet with me, I just brushed him off and kept on being the angry, hateful 'Bot I had been for so long now. Even so, a part of me was glad that Optimus kept on trying to make amends with me, even though I didn't want to. You're always going to have those old days with your pals with you in your spark, Wheeljack, but having a chip on your shoulder about how they're gone now is only gonna isolate you from your friends until you feel like there's nothing you can do to change that. Take it from someone who knows."

Wheeljack could not say anything in response to this, but instead, just sat in contemplative silence as he tried to think over what Magnus had told him. It was not that he did not already know all of this himself, he had already told himself of these things repeatedly in a manner of self-berating every time after he took off on his own like this, but this was the first time someone else had told him these facts. More than that, this was probably the first time that it really started to sink in for him, so maybe hearing it from someone else was probably what he needed after all this time. Eventually, Wheeljack looked at Ultra Magnus with a smirk and said, "You're a bit of a softy underneath all that attitude, armor, and artillery, aren't you?"

"You tell anyone, and you'll get a firsthand taste of just what my artillery is really capable of," Magnus growled in warning, but the only thing it prompted from Wheeljack was a good-natured chuckle.

"Don't worry; my lips are sealed. Us lone wolves have to stick together, right," Wheeljack chuckled in a placating tone. Magnus eventually had to give a small smile of his own in response, but that smile quickly turned to a scowl when the moment was interrupted by a voice that he really did not want to hear at the moment.

"You'll soon die together as well, Autobot. Scourge, transform," cried out the voice of the only Decepticon who's vehicle mode was not a military vehicle, and the two Autobots immediately turned to see that Scourge was not alone, as he had the entire Decepticon team with him.

Seeing the 'Cons had arrived on the scene, Wheeljack immediately engaged his battle mask and prepared himself for a fight, with Ultra Magnus doing the same by readying his blaster, and it was at this point that Wheeljack found himself with a chance to really get a look at Scourge, which allowed him to see something he had not noticed before now. "There any particular reason as to why your Scourge looks like an evil version of Optimus Prime," Wheeljack muttered to Ultra Magnus, hoping he would know the answer.

"From my understanding, when Megatron scanned in Scourge's vehicle mode, he accidentally had the guy scan in Optimus' image as well," Magnus explained in the same soft tone as Wheeljack.

"Basically creating an evil clone of Optimus Prime in all but name and voice," Wheeljack finished. "That would make a lot of sense, but still, an evil clone of Optimus; you have to admit that's a bit of a scary thought."

"Tell me about it," Magnus nodded in agreement.

"Hey! Don't ignore us when we're about to destroy once and for all! Consider this payback for your interference earlier, Mystery Autobot, and we'll be getting to your partner soon enough, too," Mega-Octane shouted before aiming his cannons at the two and firing.

Wheeljack's optics had immediately narrowed after he managed to dodge Mega-Octane's blasts, and he did not hesitate for even a second to pull out his swords and charge in as he shouted, "You leave my wingman alone, 'Con!"

That turned out to be the wrong thing to do, as Wheeljack was soon bombarded from all sides by the other Decepticons, and was forced to do whatever he could to avoid ending up like Swiss-cheese. Thankfully, Wheeljack was not alone in this fight, and Ultra Magnus was quickly able to create a break in the barrage with a missile barrage to allow Wheeljack to slip away into cover. Upon reaching the desired position, Wheeljack holstered one of his swords and changed his now free hand into a blaster before opening fire on the Decepticons, for what little good it did, but at the moment, Wheeljack was not really aiming to land any good hits on the 'Cons; he was just hoping to distract them long enough for Ultra Magnus to take them out, which the larger Autobot did with ease. Just as Magnus was raising his rifle to land a finishing blow, he was suddenly struck from the side by an unexpected barrage of energy blasts, drawing Wheeljack to return fire in the direction that the blast had come from, allowing him to see that it was Sky-Byte and the Predacons who had fired on Magnus. While Wheeljack was firing on the bestial 'Cons, Magnus managed to evade any follow-up attacks that the Decepticons attempted to throw at him before ducking into cover alongside Wheeljack, much to his chagrin, seeing as Ultra Magnus had never been forced to find cover before in a battle.

"Don't suppose you'd like to use that signature move of yours right about now, would you," Magnus asked as he tried to get a bead on one of the enemy groups that were bombarding them from nearly all sides.

"There's a reason why that move is one grenade with one shot," Wheeljack replied. "And it's because I've only got the one grenade on me. I'm kinda hoping to save it for when Mu and I finally find a way back home, since I'm pretty sure we're going to need to head right back out into the battlefield again when we do."

"Fair enough, but we have to do something, otherwise, we're not going to make it through this long enough for you to even attempt getting back to your universe."

Wheeljack just looked out over the battlefield in response to this, before he finally sighed in light defeat and made voiced the only option that seemed open to them at the moment. "Guess we're going to have to do that thing that Wreckers normally don't do," Wheeljack muttered, and he then tapped his comm. link. "Wheeljack to Mu, I'm not saying that I need backup, but I could, most likely use a little help over here."

* * *

Even a man who could make the impossible possible was able to worry now and again, and right now, Mu La Flaga was definitely worried. It had been a couple of hours since Wheeljack had left the base to be by himself for a bit, and while the Hawk of Endymion knew that his Wrecker wingman could take care of himself, that did not mean that Mu was not worried about the big guy. Thankfully, Optimus, T-AI, and the Autobot Brothers were able to provide an adequate distraction for a short time, but it still did not keep his concerns from rising back up again after said distraction had passed. When the alarms in the base suddenly went off though, Mu could feel the ill feeling that had now formed in the pit of stomach starting to grow, and it only increased even more when T-AI revealed why the alarms were going off.

"Optimus, the Decepticons and the Predacons are attacking Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack in Sector Five," T-AI exclaimed, escalating Mu's worries to maximum.

"I'm heading out," the blonde pilot stated as he turned to board his Gundam, only to pause when the Autobot leader cried out three words that he was not expecting at all.

"No, not yet," Optimus declared.

"What do you mean by that? That's my wingman and one of my best friends getting attacked out there! I can't just sit back and do nothing," Mu protested.

"And he's with Ultra Magnus. I'm certain that if they end up needing help, then they'll call us," Optimus reasoned.

Mu knew that Optimus was right, but that did not mean he liked the fact, so he ended up watching the battle unfold with a begrudging attitude, cringing every time he saw Wheeljack get hit in some way. Eventually, they saw when the battle had escalated to the point where Magnus and Wheeljack were on the ropes and it was not any longer than a few seconds later that they all heard Wheeljack's request for backup. Looking over to Optimus, Mu eventually received a nod from this universe's version of the last Prime, and he immediately bolted for the Star Force Strike with Optimus asking T-AI to inform Wheeljack that reinforcements were on the way before moving to follow after the blonde with Side Burn, X-Brawn, and Prowl right beside him.

"Wheeljack, Ultra Magnus, the Autobot Brothers, Optimus, and Mu La Flaga are all heading your way now. Try to hold out until they get there," T-AI called over the radio.

* * *

"Copy that, little lady. Just tell them to hurry," Wheeljack responded before he popped out from behind his cover to fire a few blasts at their attackers.

 _"They already are hurrying, and don't ever call me little lady again,"_ T-AI snapped.

"Uh, right. Sorry," Wheeljack sheepishly replied, having not expected such a heated response from the AI that had identified herself as the daughter of Teletraan I.

Ultra Magnus smirked a little when Wheeljack closed the communication line, having always enjoyed hearing someone getting reprimanded by the AI in that way, but his mood quickly soured once again when an energy blast nearly blew their cover apart and forced Wheeljack to duck down once again, prompting him to let loose a Stun Cluster in response. He did not really pay much attention to whether or not any of the missiles had hit, but right now, he really did not care one way or the other, because he was really just focusing on keeping himself and the Autobot from another universe alive. In his mind, Ultra Magnus swore that if Optimus and his team of reinforcements did not show up soon, then he would be sure to tear Optimus apart from the afterlife if he had to. At the sound of a pair of sirens and a jet's thrusters though, it did not seem that Ultra Magnus would have to follow through at that promise, which was only reinforced by the five voices that followed the sounds.

"Optimus Prime, transform!"

"Prowl, transform!"

"X-Brawn, transform!"

"Side Burn, transform!"

"Mu La Flaga, Star Force Strike, transform!"

Those were the five battle cries that sounded to signify that Optimus, Mu, and the Autobot Brothers had arrived on the scene, and the five were immediately blasting into action with guns blazing, carving themselves a path over to Magnus and Wheeljack in no time at all, much to the two's relief. "What took you so long," Wheeljack asked once the group was next to him, giving him the chance to start properly returning fire on the 'Cons.

"Sorry; the traffic was terrible," Mu joked in reply. He then became more serious when he added, "Besides, you know that I would've found a way to get here eventually. After all, can't let my wingman go it alone, can I?"

Wheeljack smirked in reply to Mu's statement, as it had just proved what he and Magnus were talking about earlier. The moment was quickly ruined though when a shadow was suddenly cast over the battlefield, drawing everyone's attention upward to see a strange-looking plane had descended upon them before it transformed to reveal this universe's version of the leader of both the Predacons and the Decepticons: Megatron. "Must I do everything myself," Megatron demanded of his forces. "Really, how hard is it to destroy a few, measly Autobots, even with two new, mystery ones?"

"A lot harder than you think, Mega-Moron," Mu shouted as he aimed both the Star Force Strike's rifle and one of its arm blasters at Megatron and then fired both weapons with as much power as either of the two could muster. When the blasts struck, Megatron was barely phased, much to Mu's surprise, seeing as he was putting a lot of the energy he had absorbed from the previous battle into that blast, meaning it should have been enough to make even Predaking stumble a little from the impact, but clearly, this Megatron was made of tougher stuff than he was expecting. Megatron then assumed his twin-headed dragon mode and swooped down to tear Mu's Gundam apart, and when Wheeljack attempted to bash the Predacon off of his wingman, Megatron simply blew him away with a quick burst of flames from his two dragon mouths before returning his attention to the mobile suit that was now pinned beneath him.

"Get off of him," Side Burn shouted as he readied his blaster.

"Hold on there, little brother! We can't risk firing right now. We might accidentally hurt Mu," X-Brawn warned.

"He's right," Prowl grumbled in agreement. "This is practically a hostage situation."

"You Autobots are pathetic," Megatron cackled. "Lose one of your own to the enemy, and we have you on the ropes. Such sentiments will be your downfall."

"Think again, Megatron," Wheeljack shouted. "Our desire to look out for our own and for others is what makes us strong. I may not know a lot about the future or even this universe, but here's one thing I know for a fact: you'll always loose to the Autobots, because unlike us, you always stand alone, always looking out for yourself before anyone else, and that's what makes you weak."

If there was one thing Megatron hated, it was being called weak, and he made sure to let the Wrecker know that by unleashing everything he had on Wheeljack in retaliation for his declaration. Seeing his newfound friend getting assaulted like that in addition to that friend's partner was what drove Magnus' anger over the edge, and he immediately shouted, "Leave them alone, Megatron!"

What Magnus did not know, was that an energy similar to one that he had unleashed before had started building up inside him once he saw Mu getting thrown around in the way that he was, and the minute that he had shouted that, the energy immediately erupted forth before striking the Star Force Strike head-on, and consuming the mobile suit in a blinding light. When the light finally faded away, everyone could see that the Star Force Strike had gone through a rather impressive change, at least in terms of how it was colored, but if it was anything like what had happened to the Autobot Brothers when this had happened before, then there was little doubt that the change was not just cosmetic. The parts of the Gundam that were once white were now army green, while the blue had become shinning silver, and the red had changed to a rustic gold color. A minute later, Mu's voice punctuated this new change when the blonde was heard shouting, "Star Force Strike, Cosmic Charge Mode!"

"What?! Another one of the Autobots has gained the ability to power up in this manner," Megatron exclaimed. "This isn't possible!"

"Correction, it's not probable," Mu replied, and an instant later, the new and improved Star Force Strike was racing towards Megatron at a speed unlike anything it had ever had before, ramming a single, hard punch across Megatron's face. Upon seeing their leader being so easily bested in a single blow, the Decepticons quickly combined into Ruination once again and opened fire on Mu, only for the blonde to spin his Gundam around and activate the absorption system, draining all the energy from the massive combiner's blast in one fell swoop.

Scourge made the next attempt at retaliation for the humiliation of his comrades by unleashing a barrage of missiles on Mu, but the Star Force Strike evaded each of the projectiles with ease, and then fired a single blast from its rifle, sending Scourge flying once again. Mu was honestly surprised by this, as he had the rifle set to the same levels it normally was at standard power, and yet when he had fired the weapon, the blast was almost as strong as it would have been with the absorption system enhancing it with half of the full capacity of energy it could absorb. This moment of awe is what caused Mu to finally receive a hit from Ruination, but it did not throw him off for long, because he was soon charging in with an arm blade ready for action. After slashing and striking at Ruination for a few more moments, Mu finally backed off when he saw that Optimus and Ultra Magnus had taken their turn at combining, and formed the powerful Omega Prime, who then made the final blow against Ruination.

Sensing that victory was now well out of reach, Megatron just snarled as he assumed his jet mode once again and shouted, "Decepticons, Predacons, retreat!"

None of the evil Transformer's forces disagreed with his orders, and soon enough, all variety of 'Cons were running for the hills, while the Autobots stood tall and proud in victory, with Wheeljack smirking widely at the impressive new look that his friend's Gundam had acquired.

* * *

A few hours later had seen Ultra Magnus heading off on his own once again while the rest of the Autobots had returned to base with Mu and Wheeljack in tow, each of them all wondering what had happened at the end of the battle the entire time. "Just how exactly did Mu's Gundam gain that power up from Magnus," Prowl asked.

"Maybe the same way that we got ours from him," Side Burn suggested.

"We still don't even know how that happened in the first place," T-AI pointed out. "Who's to say that it wasn't something else entirely?"

"I think we'd know for certain if it was," Wheeljack cut in. "Besides, didn't you guys say that the energy he emitted that first time was similar to your universe's version of the Matrix?"

"But it's not possible for the energy to have come from the Matrix since I'm the one who carriers it," Optimus pointed out.

"Unless you and Magnus really are sharing the Matrix of Leadership," X-Brawn suggested.

"But only one person can carry the Matrix, and that's the leader of the Autobots," T-AI reminded her teammate.

"Doesn't mean it's not possible," Mu said. "I mean, those two do combine together, so maybe it has something to do with that." That got everyone thinking for a bit, but in the end, Mu was the one who finally asked, "Does it really matter at this point? We beat the 'Cons back, my Gundam got a new upgrade, and you're able to fight on another day. I'd say that's a win."

"Yeah, Mu's right. At the end of the day, we beat 'em back and we're all still in one piece. We should just be glad for that, if nothing else," Wheeljack agreed, and he then sent a hidden smile to Mu that only the Hawk of Endymion could notice. Upon seeing that smile, Mu knew that Wheeljack was silently thanking him for always being there to watch his back, even when the Wrecker did not realize he needed it, and somehow, the blonde knew that whatever had been bothering Wheeljack before was now an issue that the Wrecker had finally put to rest.

Even so, there was still the matter of finding a way for the two heroes from another dimension to get back to their universe, and nothing was going to stop any of them from finding that way home. All Wheeljack and Mu could really do in addition to that at this point was hope that they were not too late in getting back.

* * *

 **Teletraan I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Warning: Files Are Incomplete and May Have Corrupted Data**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. Other Files Pending**

 **File ID:** **GAT-CX105B/ST Star Force Strike Gundam**

 **Pilot: Captain Mu La Flaga, the Hawk of Endymion of the Orb Military**

 **History: Considered to be the successor machine to the original Strike Gundam. Not really much else to say beyond that.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades: the typical close-combat weapons of the Transformer Gundams which in this case, hold a similar design to that of Bumblebee's. These are not normally used all that often, due to most pilots preferring to use its impressive long-range combat capabilities**

 **Arm Blasters: the default, long-range weaponry of the MS, the blasters for the Star Force Strike are most easily compared to the Autobot Wrecker Wheeljack.**

 **Alt Mode: Sky Grasper Fighter Plane, a suiting alt mode for a machine that is piloted by the man known as the Hawk of Endymion**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS AND FEATURES:**

 **Beam Sabers**

 **Cyber Beam Rifle: Unlike most of the MS's of the CX series, the Star Force Strike is the only machine to carry some form of beam rifle. This weapon only has a limited amount of ammo, and holds enough power to be able to seriously cripple a human battleship when at is default maximum output. This of course is without the added power of the absorption system, and when taking these factors into account, it is easy to see why the pilot tries to avoid using this particular weapon during a battle in the atmosphere, or unless he is absolutely certain that the weapon will not end up harming any allies.**

 **Anti-Beam Absorb Shield: This shield is often mounted on the left arm, or carried in the left hand, and is linked to the Mobile Suit's absorption system. It is through this shield that the suit's absorption system gathers energy from various sources, and as such, it is usually unaffected by beam or energon weaponry. Against missiles or other similar weapons, the shield merely works like an average shield, and is often much more durable**

 **Absorption System: The main feature of the MS, this system allows the machine to gather energy by absorbing various forms of energy blasts through the shield, and then store that energy for later use, usually to keep the MS running for a longer period of time, or to enhance the power and output of either its defensive or offensive capabilities**

 **Cosmic Charge Mode: A recently acquired ability, this mode alters the Star Force Strike's outer appearance and grants the MS and additional power boost to both its normal capabilities and those of the capabilities that it gains when using energy gathered from the absorption system.**

* * *

 ** _AN: So that's that. I know, nothing too special, and yes, this chapter took place in the universe of Transformers: Robots in Disguise 2001, also know in Japan as Car Robots. So maybe that would explain why it did not really seem all that exciting for some people._**

 ** _Also, one of the main reasons behind these chapters that lead some of the lead, main characters to other dimensions is that they all get some kind of new skill or power up that they will use for the rest of the story, even after their return home, and the whole Cosmic Charge Mode thing was really the best thing I could think of for Mu and the Star Force Strike. Beyond that, well...yeah, there's really not all that much I can really say, except that next chapter is the chapter in which we'll be seeing the final dimension that our heroes were sent to, and you'll all get to see what had happened to Optimus Prime and Kira Yamato, so get psyched up for that!_**

 ** _For more information, move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The location of Kira and Optimus is finally revealed at last, but the world that they have found themselves in is one that no one could have predicted. In a world where things that are so much like the world they know, and yet, just as many things will be drastically different as well, can Optimus and Kira manage to survive until they discover the path back home? What sort of powers and abilities with either of the two gain while they are here? And just what is it about them that has the locals they meet so shocked to the point where they seem like they have seen a ghost? Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 28: Different, Yet the Same** ** _. Brace yourself for what you will find, Strike Freedom!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	28. Different, Yet the Same

_**AN: Hey guys, it's here at last. That's right, the moment you've all been waiting for, the grandest of excitement extraordinaire, it is...the moment when I can say...here's the first chapter of my new Kingdom Hearts story!**_

 ** _Cagalli: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING THAT FOR?! THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT THAT!_**

 ** _AN: It's not?...Wait a minute...uh, whoops. Sorry, wrong script. That was entirely my bad. Hehe. Ahem, well ignoring that last part, everything at the start is true. This is in fact a moment you've all been waiting for. The moment where we discover...Where. In reality. Are. Kira and Optimus Prime!_**

 ** _[audience applause]_**

 ** _Elita: Okay, that's better._**

 ** _Bumblebee: I'm actually kinda excited for this one. Everyone's going to get a real kick out of this bad boy of a chapter before they're even halfway through it._**

 ** _Smokescreen: Well why are we just standing here going on about it when we could be letting them get onto the thing already?_**

 ** _AN: I really don't know. I think they're probably just reading this part hoping for something funny to happen, or for me to prevent a spoiler for this or another story in some comic way like by dropping a safe on somebody's head or something. Hey you! Yeah, you the reader! That's not happening today, so stop reading this, note the disclaimer, and get on with the story already! You've been waiting forever for me to post this chapter, right?...Then why are you still reading this? Move along, already!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 28: Different, Yet the Same**

 **Location: Wherever Kira and Optimus Are**

In all the time he had been a Gundam pilot, Kira Yamato had endured a great deal of hardships and pain. The loss of good friends, human and Transformer, battle injuries, and emotional struggles were just a few examples of what he had to face, but not once in his life had Kira ever dealt with anything that felt quite like what he had to endure when he, his friends, and a small number of the Autobots were pulled into that anomaly that had appeared after a mysterious energy beam had collided with energies of the Star Saber and the Dark Star Saber. It felt as though he was slowly being torn apart from the inside out, and from what he could hear of the person who was closest to him, it was no different for him or her either. Eventually, it got to the point where he could not take it anymore and simply blacked out. When he came around again, there were two things he was quick to notice.

The first of those two things was that Optimus Prime was standing over him and calling out in concern for his well-being, and the sight of the Autobot leader certainly went a long way in providing Kira with some form of relief that he was not out in who knew where all by himself. Of course, the second of those two things had him a little more concerned, and that second thing was their immediate surroundings. From what he could see, they were in the middle of a desert somewhere, but that was just about the only thing he could tell, seeing as he was not really one who could tell one desert from another like Waltfeld had often said he could. For Kira, the only thing he could see aside from Optimus was nothing but sand, sand, and more sand in every direction. Eventually, Kira finally stopped trying to figure out their location just based on his surroundings and regained his bearings enough to start moving the Strike Freedom to a sitting position at the very least, an effort that was soon helped after Optimus had given him a hand of assistance.

"Are you alright, Kira," Optimus asked once the Strike Freedom was on its feet again.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Kira replied once he had shaken the last of the cobwebs from his head. After doing so, he did a quick check of his machine's systems to make sure everything was in order before finally reporting, "It looks like the Strike Freedom's in good shape too, at least from what I can tell on my readouts, so I guess that just leaves the obvious question of just where we are."

"That I could not say," Optimus sadly revealed. "I have not been able to establish a connection to Teletraan I since I had awoken from temporary stasis, nor have I been able to raise anyone at New Iacon or Cybertron. It is as though the connections do not exist."

Kira was about to ask how that was possible when his sensors suddenly sounded, indicating that the Gundam had picked something up. After checking his readouts, Kira looked back to Optimus and said, "I think I've got something. Looks like there's a battle going on a few miles west from here, or at least, I think it's a battle, because I'm picking multiple Decepticon and unknown mobile suit signals surrounding four Autobot signals and another four mobile suit signals that seem pretty similar to the ones the Gundams give off."

"Then we must make haste and do what we can to assist. If there are Autobots and Gundam pilots in danger, then we cannot ignore them," Optimus reasoned, and he immediately activated his jetpack and blasted into the air with Kira following right behind with the Strike Freedom's own flight systems.

It did not take the two long to reach the point where they could see the area that Kira had indicated, and once it was well in sight, they had all the confirmation they needed that a massive group of Decepticons and other mobile suits were surrounding a small team of Autobots and mobile suits that were clearly Gundams. Why any Earth mobile suits were fighting with the Decepticons, Kira and Optimus could not guess, at least until they saw a few of the attacking mobile suits spare some shots at the Decepticons, indicating that they could be from a group that was similar to Whistling Reaper. Whatever the case was did not matter to either the Gundam pilot or the Autobot leader, because all that really mattered to them was that they could clearly see fellow Autobots and Gundam pilots being relentlessly attacked and overwhelmed by their enemies, and that was really all the reason that they needed to attack.

"I'll hit 'em low and you hit 'em high, Optimus. We'll basically pull a reversal of our first meeting when we strike," Kira told his Autobot friend.

"Understood," Optimus nodded, his battle mask sliding into place as he blasted forward through the air while Kira pulled back a little and descended to the ground. Optimus pulled his attention away from Kira after that, as he needed to keep his focus on the battle before him so that he could find the best opportunity to strike.

The moment quickly came when one of the Decepticons suddenly made to grab one of the mobile suits that were attacking the Autobot team and Gundams, and Optimus immediately angled himself upward so that he would slow to a quick stop while arming his left arm blaster. Once the weapon was armed and charged, Optimus fired a single shot from the weapon that sent the Decepticon tumbling away from its target on impact. Mere moments later, Optimus had deactivated his jetpack and landed in the middle of the action with a resounding boom, and since the Decepticons had ended up frozen in shock after his initial shot, he was easily able to start his own assault against the enemy Transformers by delivering a hard right uppercut to the closest 'Con, followed by hard swing of his left fist that was quickly accompanied by a shoulder jack, and ending with a right jab. When the enemy forces finally snapped out of their shock and started firing on him again, Optimus paid it little mind as he retrieved the Star Saber from where he had stored it on his back and began deflecting their shots while lashing out at the enemy forces with the mighty blade.

For a brief moment, the opposing forces seemed to think that they could still defeat the Autobots and Gundam pilots that Optimus was trying to save, but that was before the sound of a truck horn grabbed their attention and caused some of them to turn around to see where it had come from. They were soon greeted by the sight of a white, black, and blue semi-truck racing across the sand towards the battle and smashing into any enemy mobile suit or Decepticon in its path as it went. Just when the 'Cons were about to open fire on the newly arrived vehicle, the truck suddenly lifted into the air and transformed into the Strike Freedom Gundam, which quickly went to work at slashing any other enemies that got in its way before blasting into the air once again with its arm blasters readied and firing down on the enemy while it was airborne. When the Strike Freedom landed again, it quickly began firing both of its blasters and some of its other long-range weaponry at the enemy forces, giving Kira a chance to glance back at the Autobots and Gundams that they just came in to rescue. Looking over the Autobots allowed Kira to quickly recognize Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen, but what really grabbed his attention was the fact that while the four mobile suits these Autobots were fighting with were clearly Gundam-types, they were not any Gundams that Kira had ever seen before.

The first one he noticed was also probably the smallest, at least in terms of overall build, and possessed white and blue armor. If he were to judge by the small machine's build and the two swords that it carried on either side of its waist along with the large sword on its left arm, Kira would probably say that this particular machine was meant for high-speed, close-combat while still possessing some mid to long-range capabilities. The second one he noticed had an average build along with mostly green and white armor, and had what Kira assumed were a large pair of shields on either shoulder, and since it carried a large rifle on one arm that was clearly meant for taking out targets at a great distance, it was obvious that this machine was meant for long-distance engagements. The third Gundam that Kira took note of was orange and white, possessed a build that was similar to that of the second Gundam's, and if the wings on its back and legs were any indication, then Kira had to say that this orange machine was capable of changing into a mobile armor. The final Gundam was also the biggest of the four in terms of sheer build, and it appeared as though it were built for heavy assaults that required a great deal of muscle or some serious fire power, especially if the two large cannons on its shoulders and the large bazooka-looking weapon were anything to go by. The one thing that each of the four machines had in common, from what Kira could tell, was that they all seemed to be emitting a wave of strange, green particles from their backs.

A few years ago when he was still an ignorant novice, Kira would probably think that this was an extremely mismatched group of mobile suits, but since that was no longer the case, Kira was easily able to tell that these four were meant to be a team that could handle any variety of situation in any given mission, especially when they were all together. His attention was brought back to the situation at hand when Optimus suddenly said to him over their comms, "We cannot stay here. This is not a battle we can hope to win."

"Right," Kira nodded in reply, and he immediately began opening the comm. channels that were used by the Gundam Team. When none of them seem to send any response beyond some strange interference though, Kira quickly switched over to the Autobot comm. frequency and quickly received a response, much to his relief. "Attention all Autobots and Gundam pilots, please withdraw to safety at once. We'll cover you, but you have to hurry."

The response he received was not one he had been expecting, especially not from the Autobot who had spoken. _"Who is this? How'd you get on this frequency,"_ Bumblebee's voice asked over the radio, which was the only way Kira could hear his friend at the moment over the noise of the battle.

Kira was completely confused as to how his old friend could not recognize his voice, but such things were not of concern at the moment, and Kira made sure to make that clear when he next spoke. "We don't have time for needless conversations! Do you people want to die here?! Just retreat now!"

After what seemed like another, long, drawn out few minutes, the four Autobots and the Gundams that were with them finally turned, made a hole in the enemy lines, and began running as fast as they could, with each of the Gundams lifting up into the air to fly just a few feet off the ground while the Autobots each assumed their vehicle modes. Kira immediately let loose a full burst of energon blasts from all of the Strike Freedom's weapons while Optimus swung the Star Saber to release a wave of energy that forced the enemy to back off in their assault long enough so that they could join their new-found allies in their retreat. They did not have to do much in order to catch up with the eight warriors, and a few seconds after they had, the sound of an activating Ground Bridge reached their ears, followed by the teleporting vortex a second later. They did not even need Bumblebee to wave them towards the vortex, as they fully intended to join these him, the other three Autobots, and the four mystery Gundams in leaping through, but what they did not know was what awaited them on the other side would not be anything close to what they were expecting to find.

* * *

When Optimus and Kira emerged through the other side of the Ground Bridge, they found themselves not in the New Iacon Base or in any of the Autobots bases that they knew of on Earth or Cybertron. Instead, the room appeared to be similar to that of a Ground Bridge chamber on a ship in terms of layout, which easily told them that they were in fact aboard an Autobot ship at the moment, though for what reasons they could not guess. What was more interesting though, was the group that was standing just a few feet ahead of them, which was comprised of both the four Autobots from earlier, four humans that they could only assume were the pilots of the four Gundams, given how they were each decked out in pilot suits that held the same colors as the mobile suits for the most part, and a small number of other Autobots and humans as well. They did not recognize any of the human members of the group, the Kira could have sworn that he saw either Feldt or Lacus among their number since he definitely saw a girl who looked a lot like she could be one of the two, but they did not have any trouble recognizing any of the Autobots to be Ultra Magnus, Ratchet, Arcee, Strongarm, Fixit, and a 'Bot that looked similar to Sideswipe and despite the air about him that made him seem to be younger than Optimus and Kira remembered. That was not what really had them concerned though.

What really had the two concerned was the fact that every single one of the Autobots before them was staring at Optimus in the wide-eyed sense that would cause a person to think that they had seen a ghost, and they could also sense that their disbelief was also mixed with a slight amount of suspicion as well, almost like they were not sure what to think about the fact that Optimus was standing before them. A tense silence had fallen upon the room after the Ground Bridge closed behind Kira and Optimus, and it remained there until Bumblebee finally stepped forward and asked, "Optimus? Is it…really you?"

Optimus gave his former scout-turned warrior a confused look and asked, "Why would you ask me that, Bumblebee when we had just seen one another not too long ago."

"Uh Optimus, how long do you think it's been," Bulkhead inquired.

"I suspect that only a few hours had passed since our confrontation with Galvatron and Le Creuset's forces at the Maelstrom Belt, but I cannot be entirely certain," Optimus replied.

This answer drew confused looks from every other Autobot in the room, and if they had to guess, the humans in the room were exchanging confused looks as well. "Confrontation with who at the what-now," Smokescreen finally asked. "With all due respect, sir, did your processor get fried after you became one with the AllSpark, Optimus?"

Now it was Optimus and Kira's turn to be confused, because to them it sounded like the young Autobot had basically just said that Optimus had died. That was when Optimus thought of something he had not before. "What is the Earth year, Autobots?"

The group exchanged another set of looks between them before Bumblebee replied, "It's the year Anno Domini 2307. You've been gone for almost 300 Earth years."

"Anno Domini? That timescale hasn't been used since the start of the Cosmic Era, and that was seventy seven years ago," Kira gasped in confusion, drawing attention to him, or at least his machine for the first time since he entered the room.

At that point the room had fallen silent again, and Kira could not help but feel like the attention being directed at him was nothing like what had been directed at Optimus since for some reason he felt as though several different people were trying to glare holes through his entire being. Whatever the reason for this was, Kira could not say, but all attention was diverted once again when someone else walked into the room, and it was a person that Kira and Optimus were definitely not expecting or happy to see. They made the latter feeling very clear when Kira armed the Strike Freedom's blasters while Optimus activated his own blaster and battle mask and aimed them right at the newcomer, who they had recognized as a certain, red Decepticon medic/scientist who had a thing for caring a bit more for his finish than he did for the Decepticon cause.

"Hey, hey! You can't go using those things in here! You could blow us all right to the AllSpark by trying to fight like that," Wheeljack shouted in warning.

Optimus did not heed the Wrecker's warning, but Kira on the other hand did pay a little mind by grabbing his energon pistol and jumping out of his cockpit with the sidearm trained on his target as he did. "Servos where we can see them, Knockout, and don't even think about trying any tricks that'll draw your fellow 'Cons here," Kira shouted once his feet were firmly planted on the floor.

Indeed, the person who had just entered the room was none other than the Decepticon medic and scientist Knockout, in all of his shinning, red plated glory, but as to why everyone else in the room was scrambling to get Kira and Optimus to stand down and stop pointing their weapons at an obvious enemy soldier, neither of the two could begin to fathom. All efforts of preventing the two from threatening and possibly trying to hurt Knockout were quickly averted though, when the sound of a gun being clocked suddenly drew everyone's attention to the pilot in the purple suit, which Kira and Optimus had assumed was the one who piloted the largest of the four Gundams they had just seen, and much to their slight shock, they saw him aiming a pistol directly at Kira's head. If Kira was worried about this obvious threat, he did an excellent job of not showing it, as he merely glanced at the purple-suited pilot from out of the corner of his eyes without making any moves to either lower his weapon or defend himself. He remained in the same state until the man suddenly said, "I suppose we should thank you; you've saved us the trouble of pulling you out of that insulting machine so that we could interrogate you as to how you acquired it, or even why you decided to have it designed so that it could look like a Gundam."

That sentence did draw a curious look from Kira, which was mostly hidden behind his helmet's visor, but he made sure to not show it in his voice when he spoke and said, "If I were you, I'd point that gun somewhere else, that is unless that's your idea of saying 'thank you' to someone who just saved your lives."

"We did not require assistance from someone who clearly wishes to pretend to be a Gundam Meister, and I see no reason why I should be concerned about you," the man snarled in retort.

Kira just smirked in response to this before he said, "Well for one thing, I doubt the Autobots would let you threaten a good friend of theirs." When none of the other Autobots did anything in response beyond looking at him in confusion, Kira looked to them and said, "Uh, guys? That's usually the point where you do something to get him to back off you know." Still, the Autobots did nothing more but continue to look at him in the same manner, leading Optimus to wonder why his team was just standing there when their friend was in danger. Eventually, Kira just sighed and said, "Okay, Plan B. Strike Freedom, activate Sentry Mode."

In an instant, the Gundam that had believed to have been deactivated upon Kira's departure from its cockpit was raising up its blasters once again, training one on Knockout while the other was moved to a position where it could be directed to any point of the room and fired at a moment's notice. The situation had become all the more tense now, and no one was willing to back down, until finally, someone suddenly shouted, "Everyone just calm down! We're all tense here, but we're not going to get very far in receiving answers from one another if we're all trying to shoot each other, or even threatening to do so."

When Kira heard this individual speak up, he froze for a few seconds, as that person's voice sounded very familiar to him. "Miss Murrue," Kira gasped before he turned to the person who had spoken, only to be greeted with someone else. While the woman in question did share a few physical aspects with his former commanding officer, Kira was quickly able to spot the differences between Murrue Ramius and this woman, starting with the fact that this woman had dark brown eyes and reddish-brown hair that bordered on being red as opposed to Murrue's bright brown eyes and light brown hair. When he finally registered that the woman was looking at him in confusion, Kira quickly explained, "Oh, sorry, it's just…you sound a lot like someone I know. You kind of look like her too, except for a few differences."

"I understand," the near-Murrue-lookalike nodded before turning a stern gaze to the pilot in the purple suit, who had not moved his gun away from Kira. "Tieria, put the gun away, now."

The now identified pilot hesitated for a minute, leading Kira to think he was scowling for a few minutes, until he finally lowered his weapon and turned away so that he could stand off to the side. At that point, Bumblebee approached his commander again and spoke as though he were attempting to remind Optimus of something. "Optimus, don't you remember how Knockout joined us just after our last battle against Megatron's forces? He was there with us when you flew into the core of Cybertron in order to reignite the Well of All Sparks."

Optimus looked at Bumblebee for another minute, gauging both the words he had just spoken and the information he had just relayed, and upon finding that the warrior was completely convinced of what he was saying, Optimus finally disengaged his weapons and retracted his battle mask. "It would seem that while we may come from similar circumstances, our histories are not quite the same, which can only mean that I am not the Optimus Prime you know, nor are you the Autobots that I lead," Optimus finally deduced.

"You mind explaining that in a way we can understand," the pilot in a green suit requested.

"He thinks he and the kid are from another universe or something," Wheeljack explained.

"The evidence we've seen thus far does seem to suggest that likelihood to be the strongest," Optimus nodded.

"And it would explain why there are some people here who appear similar to people we know but at the same time are different people entirely," Kira nodded as he holstered his weapon. "Who are you people anyway?"

The human group exchanged a few looks amongst themselves before the pilot in green stepped forward and removed his helmet, revealing a man who appeared to be of Irish descent with light brown hair and an easy-going smile that reminded Kira a little of Mu La Flaga. "My name's Lockon Stratos, Celestial Being Gundam Meister of the machine known as Gundam Dynames."

That seemed to be the cue for everyone else to start introducing themselves, as the next one to come forward was the pilot in orange, who revealed himself to be a young man with somewhat pale skin and hunter green hair that hung down over his right eye, leaving only his grey-colored left eye visible. "My name's Allelujah Haptism, Gundam Meister to Kyrios."

When the two pilots turned to their remaining comrades in battle, the purple-clad pilot seemed to be seething quite a bit before he finally removed his helmet and revealed the face of a very annoyed young man with pale skin that could only come from living all of a person's life in Space and indoors, red eyes, and purple hair. "I am Tieria Erde, Gundam Meister of the Virtue," he announced in a clipped, short tone.

The man's answer drew an annoyed look from both Lockon and the woman who looked so similar to Murrue, before everyone looked to the last pilot, who was clad in a blue suit, some with baited breath, until he finally removed his helmet to reveal a man that appeared to be at least sixteen years old at least with black hair and brownish chestnut colored eyes, and from what Kira could tell, this kid was clearly of Middle Eastern descent. The thing that really threw Kira for a bit of a loop was that the boy had this cold, distant look about him that did not seem to indicate he was anti-social or even like the type who hated everyone around him, but instead, the look of someone who had been through the worst kind of experiences one could imagine and had come to have a hard time opening up to others as a result. "I am Setsuna F. Seiei, Gundam Meister of Exia," the boy stated in a quiet, scarily even tone, pulling Kira out of his reverie when he spoke up.

"I suppose that just leaves us," the woman who looked and sounded like Murrue said. "Call me Sumeragi Lee Noriega. I'm the captain of Celestial Being's tactical mothership, the _Ptolemaios_ and its tactical forecaster."

"Christina Sierra, CIC of the _Ptolemaios_ , at your service, handsome," a light-brown haired girl announced excitedly with a look that was a little too close to flirtatious for Kira's liking.

"Uh…I'm married, Miss Sierra," Kira quickly revealed before the girl got any ideas.

Christina quietly moaned a little in response to this, muttering something that sounded very much like "all the good ones are always taken," before she perked right back up and told Kira to just call her Christina or Chris, to which Kira nodded. Moving on led Kira to a tall man with short black hair who said, "I'm Lasse Aeon, the _Ptolemaios_ ' gunner, and reserve pilot for both the ship and some of our mobile suits."

Kira just exchanged a quick nod and handshake with the man before turning to the next person in the room. "Lichtendahl Tsery, helmsman of _Ptolemaios_ at your service, but everyone just calls me Lichty," the next boy stated with a friendly wave.

"Call me Ian, kid. Ian Vashti," the older, gruff-looking man revealed. "I'm a reserve pilot, engineer, and one of the lead mechanics for Celestial Being."

The only person left to introduce at that point was a girl who looked a great deal like Lacus except for the fact her eyes were turquoise instead of the pale cerulean that Kira's dear wife possessed. Another difference between this girl and Lacus was that this girl was clearly the shy type, given how she seemed to close in on herself a little and look to the side when she noticed the attention that was on her, but eventually, she did speak up in a soft voice and said, "My name is Feldt Grace. I'm a tactical operator for Celestial Being like Chris."

Kira placed a hand to his chin in thought as he stated, "Huh…You know, we actually have a friend back home by the name of Feldt, but she's a bit different compared to you in quite a few ways."

"Oh? Does she like shopping," Chris immediately inquired.

"Uh…I guess so," Kira shrugged after a minute. "But the more important difference is that she started out as a singer before she started doing some computer stuff, and she had actually changed her name to Feldt after a very…stressful and trying ordeal during the Autobot Civil War."

"The Autobot what," nearly every Autobot in the room exclaimed.

"Long story," both Optimus and Kira replied.

"We've got time," Lockon shrugged. "And besides, we still haven't heard a thing about you, buddy, including your name, so care to fill us in?"

"Sure, but first, mind telling me just what the heck is this Celestial Being group you all keep mentioning," Kira asked.

"We're a private, armed organization with one simple goal: the eradication of all conflict on Earth," Sumeragi explained. "We were working in secret for years, slowly developing our ranks and technology until just recently when we revealed ourselves to the world and announced our intentions to end war on Earth for a better future. What we were not expecting was that the day we revealed ourselves would be the same day that someone else did as well."

That was when Ultra Magnus stepped forward and took up the reigns of the conversation. "That day signified the fact that the Autobots had returned to Earth and our mission was to hunt down and either recapture or eliminate the rouge Decepticons that had come here hoping to either escape from the justice that they deserve or to carry on their former leader's plans. This operation was one that our Optimus Prime had put into place before his demise 300 Earth years ago. It was preferred that this mission be carried out in secret, with us maintaining our old cover as robots in disguise, but that changed when the Decepticons launched an open attack on the military demonstration that Celestial Being's Gundams had appeared at in their first, public armed intervention. As a result, we too were forced to reveal ourselves and later on, our story to the people of Earth, and while some may not trust us to keep them safe, they will still have our protection from the Decepticon threat that our second home now faces. The protection of the Autobot Primes."

Kira and Optimus could only stare in awe at what they had just learned. These people, some of which they were a bit familiar with and others that they did not know at all, were a lot like them in so many ways that it was almost uncanny. In the end, they could nothing more but simply nod in response to show their impression to the group before them, and then allowed their hosts to lead them to a more suitable location for continued conversation. Upon entering said room, Kira quickly gave the group his own introduction and then lead into the tales of his own adventures with the Autobots in their war against both the Decepticons and anyone else who opposed their peaceful ideals.

* * *

After telling their hosts the story behind the events of their universe, Kira and Optimus found themselves spending a great deal of time with the members of Celestial Being and the Autobot Primes, sometimes even comparing similarities between their two universes and what they each had or did not have. One of the things that they learned was that while the Predacons were given life again through cloning efforts led by Shockwave, only three Predacons were known to exist, as opposed to the larger number of Predacons in general that Kira and Optimus. This was definitely a comforting thing to learn, but it was also rather sad to learn that some Autobots that they knew either did not exist here or had just not been significant enough to be remembered or something, and the fact that some of their Transformer friends and allies who had died in their universe had also died in this one, such as Cliffjumper and Dreadwing, did not help the mood. Still, no matter how many similarities or differences there were between the two universes, it was good to see that the Autobots were still fighting the good fight against the Decepticons alongside strong Gundam pilots.

Speaking of said pilots though, Kira found himself spending a greater amount of time in the company of either Lockon or Allelujah, as Tieria had disappeared sometime after Kira and Optimus' explanation, and Setsuna had seemed to just try and stay out of everyone's way. Despite these facts though, Kira could not help but feel Setsuna staring at him quite a bit every now and again, almost like he was studying him, trying to figure discover something about Kira that he could not understand from talking to him. It was a bit discomforting, but at the same time it was also somewhat familiar to Kira, almost as though he knew what Setsuna was trying to find because he had been searching for it once a long time ago as well. Whatever the case, Kira figured he might as well try and talk to Setsuna later, assuming he could ever reach the guy before the quiet Gundam Meister left the room.

Aside from the pilots, Kira did spend a bit of time with the other members of Celestial Being, and in that time, he found himself running a few profiles on each of them, though some were more notable to him than others. Ian gave off the vibe of being something of a family man, in his own way, mostly due to how he interacted with some of the crew like they were part of his family, and was definitely the reliable, creative, and intelligent type of person. In addition to this, he also seemed rather prideful when it came to things that he had created, a fact that Kira learned the hard way when he asked about who designed the equipment for Celestial Being's Gundams, and found out that Ian was the one responsible for a vast majority of the organization's mobile suit development from the man himself. He had then spent quite a bit of time listening to Ian boast about the capabilities of each of the four Gundams afterwards, but it did bring a small smile to his face when he thought about how this made him a little like Erica Simmons.

After the group's engineer came Lasse Aeon, who showed himself to be a rather fearless individual and a very supportive comrade in arms, which he learned after watching the man performing a run in a mobile suit simulation. A good deal of Lasse's moves and attacks in said simulation were the supportive type for whatever group of machines he was fighting with, and he often seemed to take some serious risks if it meant that he could help his allies, even though they were in a simulation. Of course, after watching Lasse finish the simulation, he did confirm his suspicions by spending a little time talking to the reserve meister.

Then there was Sumeragi Lee Noriega, who Kira quickly learned was a lot more similar to Murrue Ramius La Flaga than he originally thought. Like Murrue, Sumeragi seemed to be a very strong-willed person who had clearly lost a loved one at some point in the past, yet at the same time, she also seemed to act like something of a mother/older sister figure to some of the crew in pilots at some points, though the approach she took was much different compared to Murrue's. Another difference that Kira noted was that Sumeragi was a very heavy drinker, and from what he learned from some of the others, that was especially true when times were extremely tough, which Kira took to me that Sumeragi's resolve was a bit more fragile than Murrue's had ever really been. The only time that Kira had seen Murrue come close to breaking that much was after they discovered that Mu was alive and had been brainwashed into thinking he was someone else.

He did not really get a chance to spend much time talking with the rest of the _Ptolemaios_ crew, but he was still able to pick up on a few things here and there from what few observations he could take of them in passing. Lichty was certainly a kind, friendly type who was not always the most mindful of certain things, while Chris was the type of person who was always upbeat and cheerful. The latter was an extreme opposite of the shy, quiet Feldt Grace, who's lack of an upbeat attitude clearly seemed to worry Chris a bit. Feldt was not very secretive about her feelings, but she also did not talk about them that much, and every now and then, Kira would find her happily conversing with a very large version of a certain spherical robot that he had come to associate as robotic pets of Lacus'. He figured that it was probably because of how comfortable she seemed to be when it comes to working with machines, which would explain why he sometimes saw her spending a bit of time with some of the Autobots, particularly the Arcee of this universe.

Running all these profiles through his mind, Kira found himself wondering how a group with such a large diversity in personalities could really handle their mission of ending all war on Earth. Sure differences can often make a group stronger, but in this case, he could not help but feel as though the vast number of differences here was more likely to be detrimental to them than it would be helpful. These were the thoughts that were running through Kira's mind when he ended up wandering onto an observation deck that Lockon was standing in as he looked out to the stars. "Oh, sorry; I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going," Kira quickly apologized when he realized the sniper was in the room.

"Hey, don't worry about. It's fine," Lockon reassured Kira with a smile before returning his gaze to where he was looking.

Kira was about to turn around and leave when he realized that this would probably be a good chance to get an answer to what he had been wondering. After all, out of all the people on this ship, it was clear that Lockon was the most open and the most sociable of the group, so there would not likely be any harm in talking to him about it. Making his decision, Kira walked over to look out the window next to Lockon and eventually settled on a question that would serve as a good starting point. "Why did you join Celestial Being, Lockon," Kira asked. When Lockon looked at Kira in mild surprise, the Ultimate Coordinator quickly added, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to; I was just curious."

"Don't worry, it's fine. I guess I'm just not used to hearing someone ask about stuff like that," Lockon shrugged. "Celestial Being is a really secretive group, right to the point that a lot of us don't really know anything about one another. Everyone's past is highly classified information, and unless you were born into the organization or have a situation similar to Allelujah's, you only know a person by their codename."

"So Lockon's not your real name," Kira asked, just to make sure he was understanding right.

"Nope; my real name's Neil Dylandy. Besides, do you really think that someone would actually name their kid 'Lockon'," the meister chuckled.

"Well, considering we both hang out with giant alien robots that go by names like 'Bumblebee', 'Arcee', 'Jazz', and other similar names…" Kira reasoned.

"Yeah, I guess I have to give you that," Lockon shrugged. His face then became a bit more serious before he revealed the answer to Kira's initial question. "I joined Celestial Being a few years ago, sometime after my parents and little sister were killed in a terrorist bombing. I've hated those kinds of people ever since, and I know that's a bit ironic considering that Celestial Being is a group of terrorists as well in a manner of speaking, but in our case, we're actually trying to do some real good for the world, and we only ever target places with an active military presence or where a battle is happening. We never target civilian locations or industries or cause any such casualties. Terrorism is just one of the many things that are spawned by war, and I like to think that helping Celestial Being to end all wars on Earth will bring an end to that for good."

"I see," Kira nodded in response, honestly feeling that there was nothing else he could really say in response to that. He knew that a lot of people suffered because of war, often times including the soldiers who fought in the war, but he also knew that he and his friends were some of the lucky ones despite what they had been through. "Is it the same for everyone else here, or do you know?"

"I'm pretty sure it's not the same for all us, but it is pretty similar," Lockon admitted. "Everyone who's in Celestial Being is here because they hate war or some aspect of it for one reason or another. Some of us could have been former soldiers who had seen one too many battlefields for their liking, some of us could have been used as part of some sick experiment to make a super soldier or something, others could've been forced to become child soldiers. Even that doesn't cover everyone's story, because some of us were born into the organization. No matter what a person's reasons though, everyone in Celestial Being is here for the same overall reason: to help rid the world of war."

Kira had to smile a little in admiration for that, as he had gotten the answer he was looking for without even needing to ask the question, and so he thanked Lockon for telling him all of this and then moved to leave. Just as he was reaching the door though, Lockon called out to him and asked, "Why'd you become a soldier, anyway? You don't really seem like the type to really be a serious soldier."

Kira had to pause to consider that for a minute before he answered, "Originally, I was only a mobile suit pilot so that I could protect the ship that my friends and I had gotten stuck on and then later enlisted as crewmembers of, but after a while…I guess you could say that, while I was not really an official soldier at one point, I had still become something of one for the same reason that you guys have for being in this group, and because I believe in the ideals that the Autobots stand for."

Lockon must have understood what Kira meant by that, because he simply nodded with a smile and then waved as Kira left the room. Kira had something of a small smile of his own on his face as he proceeded to the temporary quarters he had been given on the _Ptolemaios_ , but the smile was quickly replaced with a look of surprised confusion when he suddenly found his path blocked by none other than Setsuna, and while the younger man's face held a neutral look, Kira could just tell that the kid had something very important on his mind. "Kira Yamato, could I speak with you in private," Setsuna asked.

After regarding Setsuna for a minute and not sensing any malicious intent of any kind, Kira had to smile and reply, "Sure thing, Setsuna."

Setsuna just nodded in thanks to this before turning to lead him to where he wanted to talk, with Kira more than happy to let the young man take the lead in this regard.

* * *

Like Kira, Optimus was spending a good deal of time getting to know their hosts, the only difference being that the last Prime was learning about the doppelgangers of his comrades. Sure, part of that time was spent in the medical lab with Ratchet and Knockout so that they could confirm he was who he claimed to be, mainly through taking samples of his CNA and some scans of his energon signal, but it was still time that he was glad to spend, and it seemed that the Autobots of this universe were happy to spend it with him as well. He may not have been their Optimus Prime, but they were still happy to have some time with any version of their late leader again.

In all honesty though, there were really not that many differences between these Autobots and their alternate versions from back home. Bumblebee had regained his voice after falling into a massive amount of cyber matter, Bulkhead and Wheeljack were like brothers, Ultra Magnus was extremely serious about following regulations yet still a good leader, and Smokescreen was still the young, eager to please Autobot he knew, only he was now a bit more seasoned and serious, just to name a few examples. There were some differences though, such as the fact that the Sideswipe of this universe was one of the younger 'Bots as opposed to being a seasoned soldier like the one back in Optimus' universe, but more the more notable difference was that Arcee had basically retired from being a soldier on the front lines. She did reassure Optimus that she was a reserve Prime, but her main duties were now on the bridge of their new ship as a CIC. This was something that Optimus Prime had a hard time believing seeing as the Arcee he knew was not likely to be someone who would step back and leave the battlefield if she could do something to help like that.

On the topic of the Autobot Primes though, Optimus also learned that the term referred to the four Autobots who were normally deployed for missions, those four being the ones that he and Kira had first encountered after arriving in this dimension, much like how only the four Celestial Being pilots were Gundam Meisters. They were referred to as Autobot Primes for two reasons: the first reason was because they were the more elite warriors out of all of this dimension's present day Autobots, and the ones who were sent out on specialized, high-risk missions like the mission that this team currently had, but the second reason was the one that really got Optimus' attention. Ultra Magnus explained that they referred to their warriors as Autobot Primes as a way to honor their Optimus Prime, who had told them that they had all proven worthy of being Primes in their own rights before giving up his existence to reignite the Well of All Sparks. Hearing this warmed Optimus' spark, because while he may not have been their Optimus Prime, he was still touched that they would do something like this in his memory, and he was sure it was a feeling that their Optimus shared.

There were other things that he was not quite as happy to find out though, but the most memorable of those things was what he learned in regards to their system of leadership. While it was stated that Ultra Magnus was dubbed the official commander, mostly due to the fact that he was the one in command of their ship, everyone seemed to agree that Bumblebee was the team leader of the operation except for the former scout. This honestly did not surprise Optimus that much, seeing as his universe's version of Bumblebee was very much the same for a time when there was a chance that Optimus would have had to pass the Matrix to him, but the fact that he was able to take charge so easily and yet continued to insist that he was either not the leader here or just not ready to lead yet was worrying to Optimus. A leader who was unsure of himself was always a very dangerous thing to have in a team, and with him here, Optimus was not sure how Bumblebee would handle things right at that moment.

Such concerns would have to wait for now, because everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to something else when the Autobot ship's alarms started going off, leading Ultra Magnus to request a report on what the reason for such an alert was, which Strongarm quickly granted. "We're picking up reports of a Decepticon sighting in HRL territory," Strongarm reported.

"Can you confirm the sighting or identify the Decepticon? We don't want to risk sending anyone into an ambush," Bumblebee asked in a tone that Optimus noted was fitting of a leader.

"Checking now," Arcee replied as she assumed her station on the bridge. "…Confirmed; Decepticon signals are in that area, and we have a positive ID on them as well. Looks like Steeljaw and his pack are making another play."

"So what's our response to this," Wheeljack asked upon entering the room with Bulkhead and Smokescreen right behind him.

"Primes, gear up and deploy at once. If you encounter any humans, attempt to avoid them as much as possible. You know the standard procedure if that is not entirely possible," Ultra Magnus ordered.

"Roger that," Bumblebee nodded. "Tell our friends on the _Ptolemaios_ to have at least one or two of the meisters standby to launch just in case though."

"If that handles all areas of concern, we had best roll out as quickly as possible," Optimus declared as he moved towards the door, only to be stopped by Bumblebee.

"Sorry, but with all due respect, Optimus, I can't let you go out there to fight this battle with us," Bumblebee insisted. Optimus was about to counter this statement when Bumblebee said, "If your universe is facing as grave a threat as you said it is, then they'll need you back there as soon as possible, so we can't let you risk your safety for ours. Besides, we've already lost our Optimus Prime; I can't let another universe's Autobots lose theirs as well when they need him so much."

Even though he did not enjoy the idea of standing by and doing nothing while fellow Autobots were fighting against their sworn enemies like this, Optimus could see the point in Bumblebee's reasoning. This was not his battle to fight, no matter how much he wanted to help in it, and these Autobot Primes have been handling things as they were for some time now if what he had read on their recent missions were any indication, so in the end, he could only nod in acceptance of their decision and let Bumblebee lead his team out for their mission. That did not mean he had to keep himself from laughing a little when Bumblebee looked to his team and declared, "Autobot Primes, let's wreck and roll!" When he received only blank looks in response he said, "What? I thought it was pretty good."

"I would keep working on it if I were you," Optimus advised as the team departed, though he already knew what the best battle cry for Bumblebee was going to be. That did not mean that he was just going to come out and tell him what it would most likely be. This was a different Bumblebee after all, so he had to make his own decisions, even if they were not the same as the ones that his doppelganger made. Though if the various groans he heard in reference to Bumblebee's latest battle cry were any indication, he would have to hope that he would make a good decision in that regard sooner rather than later.

* * *

"So let me get this straight: you guys are seriously telling me that you just sit here and watch as the Autobots try to take down Decepticons when you could be down there helping them," Kira asked in disbelief as he watched Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Smokescreen move to engage a group of Decepticons. He was currently standing on the _Ptolemaios_ ' bridge with the four Gundam Meisters and the ship's bridge crew, watching the Autobot Primes carry out their most recent mission.

"That is what Lieutenant Bumblebee had requested we do," Tieria replied. "It was his specific instructions that we only interfere in their mission should he or Commander Ultra Magnus request our aid, and at the moment, they have asked us to only remain on standby for the moment. More to the point, this conflict is not one of Earth, so Celestial Being has no real grounds to intervene."

"Hey, we all want to help, but we're all still adjusting to being allies with one another. It's not like we've been fighting with the Autobots for several years like you have, Kira," Lockon pointed out.

Kira wanted to argue this point, but he could see where they were coming from. Unlike him, these guys had not really been working for the Autobots for very long, so they would naturally be more cautious about interfering in a battle between the two groups of Transformers. Still, that did not mean they should not at least try to help out their allies if there was a chance they could help. Heavens knows how many times Kira and his friends were able to help the Autobots out when the 'Bots thought they did not need the help. After watching Bumblebee and his team fight for a few minutes though, Kira started to think that maybe they really would not need the help, but he immediately returned to his original thought process when he saw the tide begin to turn against the 'Bots.

One minute the Autobots had been fighting only a Decepticon group being led by a steel-grey armored, werewolf-like 'Con and were holding their own quite easily, but then the next minute, things started going bad because a group of mobile suits were soon swarming the place and firing on all Transformers in the area, be they Autobot or Decepticon. This was clear evidence to Kira that, while the Autobots had made their presence known to Earth, they were not very welcomed among most of humanity. Kira could not help but wonder if part of the reason was because they were allied with a group like Celestial Being, but he swiftly put that aside and turned to run out the door, drawing all attention to him as he did.

"Where are you going," Allelujah asked.

"To do what you guys should have been doing all along: help our friends," Kira replied.

"You do remember that these Autobots are not the ones you know, don't you Admiral Kira Yamato," Tieria pointed out.

"Doesn't matter," Kira disputed. "If they so much as wear the Autobot insignia, they're my friends, and I'm not gonna sit on the sidelines and watch while they get torn apart like that. Besides, I thought Celestial Being's mission was to put an end to conflict, period. Do you really think that's going to stop at just Earth? The Autobots and Decepticons are living proof that there are other battles going out there in the larger galaxy, not just here on Earth."

"Our mission is to put an end to conflict, yes, but the plan had always been to do so for our own world," Tieria insisted.

"Well that's all the more reason to help the Autobots, so you can do that," Kira insisted. "They're fighting for the same reasons as you guys claim to be fighting for: for peace and freedom for all sentient beings. You can't just ignore that, because if you do, the Decepticons will cause all of your efforts to be for nothing."

Before someone could say anything else in this argument, Setsuna suddenly spoke up, drawing all attention to him. "We should go. Kira Yamato is right in saying that this falls into our mission's parameters. The Autobots are fighting for the same reason that Celestial Being is fighting for, so we should go help them."

Everyone just looked between Setsuna and Kira in silence for a moment before Lockon finally smiled and said, "Crazy…if the kid is agreeing with you then I can't really say that we shouldn't do this. Count me in, too."

"Same here," Allelujah nodded a second later.

Everyone's attention then turned to Tieria, who just looked around at everyone like they were crazy for thinking like this, until he finally sighed and said, "Fine. Someone has to make sure we don't lose three GN Drives or the machines they power in this escapade."

"Nice to see you have your priorities straight, Tieria," Allelujah muttered.

Sumeragi then stood up from her chair and floated over to Kira so that she could hand him a flash drive and said, "This contains a program that you'll need to install on your machine so that its radar and communications won't be effected by the interference field the GN Particles create."

"Thanks," Kira nodded once he accepted the drive, and he then turned back to the meisters. "Alright, I know you guys probably don't trust me that much, but for right now, none of that type of thing matters, because once we launch, we're not five random people piloting Gundams, we're a team, and that means we watch each other's backs and leave no one behind for any reason." The four each gave their own version of affirmative nods in response to Kira's short speech, leaving the Ultimate Coordinator with just one thing left to say. "Gundam Meisters, burst on and roll out!"

The grins that Lockon and Allelujah were wearing instantly widened a little more at hearing Kira's battle cry before the latter asked, "That's actually pretty good."

"Yeah, maybe you should give Bumblebee some pointers, because he's been having the worst time coming up with something," Lockon suggested.

"Trust me; Bumblebee doesn't need my help with coming with a battle cry. I actually had to do a _lot_ of brainstorming before I finally came up with that," Kira disputed, and he then tapped his belt buckle to activate his pilot suit as he joined the meisters in heading to the _Ptolemaios_ ' hangar. Since his machine was already in the docking bay, due to the fact that the ship only had four containers for mobile suits, and he was already fully suited up, Kira was to be the first person to launch from the ship, so once he was in the Strike Freedom's cockpit, he immediately ran through its startup process while Chris and Feldt did their usual jobs for him.

 _"Transferring timing control to Strike Freedom,"_ Feldt announced from over the comm.

"Roger that," Kira replied once he saw that said control had been given to him, and now he had to do was take off with the same phrase he had said so many times in the past, and would probably say again many times in the future. "Kira Yamato. Strike Freedom, let's do it!"

* * *

Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobot Primes were really not having a good day right at the moment. The number of unexpected surprises that were followed quickly by slight disappointments alone was enough to nearly drive the former scout up a wall, but when one added in the latest attack by Steeljaw and his Pack, it was understandable why the leader of the Primes was beginning to lose what little patience and tolerance he had that day. Being as it was comprised of some of the worst Decepticons of the time since Megatron and his main generals, Steeljaw's Pack were no pushovers, especially when one considered that they not only outnumbered the Primes on a normal basis, but they also seemed to be effective counters against them in one way or another. Sure they were not much of an effective team, but they could still hold a few advantages over them from time to time, especially when someone did something stupid, like the HRL mobile suits were doing at the moment when they decided to intervene and attack both groups of Transformers.

This was not all that surprising to Bumblebee or any of the Autobot Primes to be honest. Ever since they had returned to Earth and announced their presence and history to humanity, they would encounter some of the forces of the three major powers on Earth in such a manner, though they could not help but sometimes wonder if their association with Celestial Being had anything to do with it. It was not always that big of a problem, though; they were often able to just get away before anything too serious happened via a Ground Bridge from their ship, or in failing to do that, they were easily able to just disable the mobile suits that attempted to fight them while simultaneously making sure that they made no actions that would harm the humans that piloted them. However, when the human soldiers were doing something exceptionally stupid or irrational, like they were doing right then by attacking them as they engaged the Decepticon fugitives, those options were swiftly shoved off the table, making their jobs that much harder. In fact, there were a few times that some of the heroes of Cybertron could not help but wonder if some of these world powers were actually being stupid enough to side with the Decepticons, at least until he saw them shooting at said fugitives.

Such things were not that great a concern right now, because there was still the question of what exactly Steeljaw's Pack was doing here in the first place. Up until this point, the Pack would only target facilities that had something that could somehow benefit them in Steeljaw's grand scheme of turning Earth into a haven for Decepticons under his "benevolent" leadership, but this facility had absolutely nothing to offer, at least not as far as the Autobots could tell. The only things that were really notable about the base was that it had a few old, Earth aircrafts around the area, but he sincerely doubted that Steeljaw would want anything from those, so what could they have possibly been after was a complete mystery to the team. He considered the possibility that Steeljaw lured them here so that the humans could finish the Autobot Primes off after he and his Pack had softened them up, but that just seemed like a bit too much of a gamble for Steeljaw, at least from what Bumblebee knew of the 'Con, so he continued to ponder the mystery in the subsections of his processor while doing his best to help his team fend off the attacks that were coming from all sides, hoping that they could make some sort of opening to retreat through for the moment until they came up with a more solid plan to stop whatever it was that Steeljaw had cooked up for them this time.

The opening they needed came sooner than they were expecting when a sudden rain of beam blasts came down on both the Decepticons and the mobile suit unit surrounding them, and upon looking to the source, everyone was quickly able to spot Celestial Being's Gundams descending onto the battlefield with the Strike Freedom leading the way, its arm blasters firing as it went. Once the blue-winged Gundam was about to be close enough, it changed one of its blasters back into a hand and pulled out a beam saber so that it could slash apart two of the enemy mobile suits as it passed, knocking them out of the fight a second later with a pair of shots from its railguns a second after. That opening easily allowed the Celestial Being Gundams to enter the fight with little trouble, and it was only a short while later that they were side-by-side with the Autobot Primes in this fight.

Not all of the meisters were quick to join the Autobot Primes at their side though, but this was mostly due to the fact that they would provide better support outside the circle of enemies that had surrounded the Cybertronian heroes. This was proven true when Allelujah swooped over the battlefield in Kyrios' mobile armor mode to fire a few strafing rounds in an attempt to keep the opening they helped form present, an effort that was assisted by Lockon holding a sniping position and firing on any opposition from a distance using the Dynames' impressive long-range capabilities. Despite their best efforts though, it was not long before Kira, Tieria, and Setsuna found themselves trapped in an encirclement of enemies along with their Autobot allies.

"You shouldn't be here right now," Bumblebee told the three Gundam pilots as he attempted to shield them from any attacks that the Decepticons threw at them.

"Well we couldn't just sit back and watch while you guys got hammered like this," Kira retorted.

"Celestial Being's mission is the eradication of conflict and those who would promote conflict. From where we were standing, it seemed that the Decepticons were doing just that, so we couldn't ignore it," Setsuna explained as he fired Exia's beam rifle along with its GN Vulcans.

Hearing Setsuna speak out against his protests immediately silenced any other arguments that Bumblebee had, and the Autobot Prime could only shake his head in slight amusement in response, wondering if he had really been this stubborn during his first time on Earth many years ago. Still, it did not change the fact that they were now completely surrounded and unable to escape. Even with the added support of the Gundam Meisters and Kira Yamato, there was a strong chance that they would not make it out of this situation in one piece without some type of miracle occurring. Thankfully, it seemed that miracles occurred around Bumblebee quite a bit, because not long after he had thought that very thing, one came in the form of a rapid barrage of energon blasts from above.

Looking to this attack's source allowed Bumblebee to see the Optimus Prime of Kira's universe descending onto the battlefield with his jetpack, his Minigun armed and firing on any that were attempting to harm his allies, but what none of them expected was for most of the mobile suit forces from the HRL to suddenly divert their attention away from them and onto the last Prime. Optimus was quick to evade the incoming fire that he had found directed at him, but despite how fast he was in the air, he was still not quite fast enough to avoid being hit by one or two enemy shots, and as a result of some of those blasts hitting his jetpack, he quickly came crashing down into the circle where Kira, Bumblebee, and the others were all standing. Optimus did not stay down on the ground for long, for in a surprising show of speed for someone of his size, Optimus was back on his feet again and firing his Minigun at any who attempted to harm the members of their group, for what little good it was doing in discouraging anyone from attempting to continue in this engagement.

It was at this moment that Bumblebee finally realized just what the objective of this attack was: Steeljaw wanted to discover the full extent of Optimus and the Strike Freedom's capabilities, and he was using this battle to do so. That was why he made this offensive become so drawn out; it was so because he knew that the HRL would respond as soon as possible and would likely turn their focus to Optimus and Kira simply due to the fact that they were the most recent members of their forces to appear. Bumblebee knew that they probably should not be too worried about what they could learn from watching Kira fight in the Strike Freedom, mostly due to the uniqueness of his Gundam, but if they learned too much about Optimus Prime, then there was no telling what would happen, and that made his next order clear.

"Autobot Primes, Gundam Meisters, fall back, and keep a tight formation on the Strike Freedom and Optimus," Bumblebee shouted.

Any protests the group may have had at the first half of his orders were immediately silenced when they heard him say to stick close to Optimus and Kira, so the minute that Lockon and Allelujah made another opening, the group started making a run for the nearest location that they could signal for a Ground Bridge from. Unfortunately, their defensive formation was quickly broken, and Optimus and Kira were both under heavy fire once again. To make matters worse, any attempts that the meisters of the Primes made to get to them were cut off by both the HRL and the Decepticon Pack, so they were forced to both fight off these opponents and watch as Kira and Optimus received a heavy beating from their enemies.

Bumblebee's discovery had not been missed by Optimus, as he quickly figured out the reasons for this attack as well, and he was not planning on letting himself be bested by such an attack after all he had endured over the past few years, but even with all of the wisdom that he was granted with thanks to the Matrix of Leadership, Optimus was having a hard time finding a way out of this with the abilities that he and Kira currently possessed. That was when it struck him; if he and Kira could not escape with the use of their current abilities, they would just have to gain some new abilities, and at that moment, there was only one ability that could help them escape at this time, and it was an ability that he could quite possibly gain very easily.

"Kira, be ready to jump onto my back when I tell you to," Optimus told his friend, and before Kira could question what he meant by that, knowing that Optimus' jetpack had been damaged earlier when he was shot down, the last Prime immediately turned his attention towards one of the old planes that were sitting on the base's grounds.

With his gaze completely fixated on the jet in question, Optimus' eyes soon released the scanning beam that Kira and the others knew full well as the one that Transformers used to acquire a new alt mode, and while some of them thought that Optimus was only scanning in a new vehicle mode to replace his current one, Kira had a hunch that this was something different. That hunch was proven true after the scan was complete and Optimus turned and transformed into the battle truck mode he had possessed since he had first received his upgrade. What happened next gave everyone various different forms of shock and surprise, because after racing across the battlefield for a short time and gaining a specific amount of speed, Optimus transformed again, not into robot mode, but instead, into the bomber jet he had just scanned, and then blasted off into the sky above them.

The shock at seeing Optimus change into this new vehicle mode allowed the last Prime the chance to rain down a barrage of missiles and energon blasts on the enemy units that were still surrounding Kira as he dived back down towards him, and while they were still distracted, Optimus took the opportunity to shout, "Kira, get ready to jump onto my back now!"

Optimus' plan had finally made complete sense to Kira when he saw the last Prime show how he had now become a triple-changer, but he did not really begin to make any actions to follow through with his part of it until he heard Optimus shout to him. After coming out of his awestruck state though, Kira immediately turned the Strike Freedom around so that it could make a running start for its upcoming jump. When he saw Optimus flying closer and closer to the ground, Kira made his move and had the Strike Freedom leap into the air with some assistance from its thrusters, showing that Optimus intended for Kira to ride out of the battle zone on his back, but it was not to be. Just seconds before the Strike Freedom's feet had so much as brushed the paint on the back of Optimus' new jet mode, a sudden blast from behind knocked Kira off course, sending him hurtling back down to the ground again, and forcing Optimus to pull up so that he would not be grounded as well.

Thankfully, Kira had not been hurt by the surprise attack, but a quick check of his machine's systems showed that the Strike Freedom's thrusters had been damaged by the attack, making it impossible for him to safely attempt another jump like that. Optimus could see this just as well, but all the same, that was the only plan they had at the moment, so he quickly told Kira to prepare to make another attempt before he swung around to try again, with the Autobot Primes and Gundam Meisters firing their weapons in their best attempt to cover them. Sadly, the enemy's newest barrage kept Optimus from making any attempts at reaching Kira, and the interference that Allelujah provided in the Kyrios, while somewhat beneficial in making sure that he was not shot down again, did little to help, and Kira was left to fend for himself as best as he could. Thankfully, the Strike Freedom was not lacking in fire power, but not even all the weapons that the Ultimate Coordinator's Gundam possessed was making a big difference in giving him an opening that he could use to escape this entrapment. Seeing all this unfold around him, Kira decided that if he was going to get out of there alive, he would have to make what could possibly be a desperate move, and he did not hesitate to do so.

"No Kira," Optimus shouted when he saw the Strike Freedom turn it's gaze towards another one of the jets and then release its gold colored scanning beam onto the aerial vehicle.

"What's wrong," Allelujah asked as he passed by the last Prime in another strafing run.

"While the artificial T-Cog that Kira's Gundam possess does allow it to scan vehicles and transform like a Transformer, the closest that such a machine could ever hope to come to being a triple-changer would be by possessing the capability to transform into a mobile armor. If Kira cannot get the Strike Freedom to successfully become a triple-changer as I believe he is attempting to, there is a strong chance that the machine's systems will meltdown and begin to self-destruct with him inside," Optimus explained in a panicked voice.

"Well then we've gotta stop him," Lockon shouted as he redirected his fire to the enemies that were closest to Kira in an attempt to discourage the Ultimate Coordinator from carrying out what he was planning.

"It's already too late," Optimus sadly stated, knowing full well that once the scanning beam had been activated, there was no stopping it until it was finished.

Kira did indeed intend to make the Strike Freedom become a triple-changer like Optimus had now become, but what he was not expecting was that once the scanning beam had finished running over the jet, all of the systems would begin to malfunction and shut down before reengaging for a few moments in rapid succession. He knew that Miss Erica had warned them all that this could happen, but it was still a risk he had to take, and somehow, deep inside, he just knew that the Strike Freedom could do this. "Come on Strike Freedom," Kira pleaded with his machine as he held a tight grip on his controls in an attempt to help regain control of the machine's systems, voicing the belief he held in his Gundam as he did. "You can do this. We've already overcome so many challenges before now, no matter what odds were stacked against us or how high they were stacked. You can do this…no, _we_ can do this. You've always been there to help me through whatever situation I had gotten us into, and I've done the same for you. We're just as much of a team as Optimus and I are. That's why I believe that we can do this now!"

A moment later, the Strike Freedom, which had fallen into a kneeling position as its systems malfunctioned, suddenly seemed to gain a new burst of strength, as suggested by how its eyes flashed brightly for a moment before it stood up once again and released a burst of energy that many of the people in the area could have sworn that they felt, while inside the Gundam's cockpit, all of the systems suddenly returned to life in a way that was similar to how they had all come online the very first time that Kira had piloted the machine. After checking the readout he needed, Kira grinned in excitement and pushed his machine forward, having it take a running start that allowed him to blast apart any mobile suits that got in his way with the arm blasters before changing it into its truck mode. Like how he had done earlier when he first appeared before the people of this universe, Kira drove the Strike Freedom's truck mode through various enemies, ramming into them as hard as he could, until finally, he drove the machine up a make-shift ramp and into the air, where he immediately hit the control for his machine to transform again, but not into Gundam mode.

Everyone could only watch with baited breathes as the Strike Freedom's truck mode flew into the air and then began to shift and change until finally, much to everyone's surprise, the Transformer Gundam had become the very fighter jet that Kira had just scanned. "By the AllSpark. He actually did it," Optimus gasped in astonished yet proud awe at the evidence of Kira's accomplishment.

The last Prime did not stay in his awestruck state for long though, as he quickly flew closer to fire upon any enemies that would attempt to strike at Kira from behind, easily flying in formation with the Strike Freedom as though they were doing so in this manner for years now. The Gundam Meisters and Autobot Primes were not about to be outdone though, as evidenced when Bulkhead and the Virtue opened fire with their biggest guns while Wheeljack set up a few different enemies for Allelujah to finish off with the Kyrios. Setsuna and Bumblebee were quick to engage any who would attempt to come after their comrades in close-combat, while Lockon and Smokescreen kept anyone else from getting close with an easy barrage of beam and energon fire. This combination of attacks and teamwork are what finally allowed the group to properly retreat to a safe distance, where they soon disappeared into a Ground Bridge just seconds after Bumblebee had signaled for it, leaving Steeljaw and his Pack to make a run for it so that they would not be attacked by the remaining human mobile suits as well, the werewolf-like leader howling in anger and frustration at this whole operation's apparent failure as they did.

* * *

A few hours had passed since the team had returned from the battle that had taken place, and everyone was still ecstatic over what Optimus and Kira had managed to pull off. Kira was especially proud of the fact he had managed to give the Strike Freedom true triple-changer capabilities, as one could easily tell by the surprisingly large grin on his face as he clinked the drink glass in his hand against another person's glass in a toast to the success that everyone had just tasted. Kira's drink was not alcoholic or anything, despite the attempts that Sumeragi had made in trying to slip him a drink of such variety, and he had no attempts of changing that any time soon. Even the Autobots were getting in on the impromptu party that unfolded on their ship, all simply happy that they had gotten through this without any problems, and the celebration continued on like this until Tieria approached Kira with a question that had been bothering him for some time now.

"Admiral Kira Yamato, why did you attempt to carry out a move that had such great risks to both your machine and your personal safety," the purple haired meister asked, drawing everyone's attention to the two since they were also curious about what Kira's answer would be. The fact that Tieria had asked with such sincere curiosity in his tone and not the cold, clipped variety of it for once also sparked some intrigue in some of the group as well though.

Kira thought about it for a minute before he said, "It was the only way I could have gotten out of there at that point, and besides that, somehow I just knew that it was going to work. I can't really explain how I knew that. I just…knew."

"It was thanks to your Gundam," Setsuna suddenly said in his usual quiet, monotone voice, drawing attention to him as he continued to address Kira. "You believed that your Gundam would save you, so you took the chance knowing that it would be able to do that. Your faith in your Gundam allowed it to save you, despite the risks to itself."

Kira seemed to let these words mull over in his mind a bit, thinking back to the conversation that he had with Setsuna earlier and how the youngest meister had wanted to know more about why Kira piloted a Gundam and his reasons for continuing to do so, until he finally looked Setsuna directly in the eye, smiled, and said, "Yeah, I guess I did. I trusted my Gundam to save me, and it did, just like it always has, always does, and always will."

A ghost of a smile seemed to cross Setsuna's face at that response, one that only Kira had managed to glimpse since he was looking right at Setsuna at the moment, but everyone was soon smiling at least a little when Lockon said, "Great; does this mean we've got another, total Gundam nut to deal with, because I think we have a hard enough time dealing with one as it is since we've got Setsuna around all the time."

While just about everyone in the room found the comment to be funny to some extent, including Tieria who actually let a small smirk of amusement slip out, Setsuna could only smile in response to this, letting Kira know that the young man likely found that to be a good compliment, and that fact was something that Kira found even more humorous than what Lockon had said. It was good for Kira and Optimus to get something of a laugh right then, because they knew that they were likely in for a long wait before they finally found a way to get back to the universe they belonged in, but until that time came, they were determined to help the Autobot Primes and Celestial Being any way that they could. Of course, they never expected the wait to not be very long at all.

* * *

 **Teletraan I, Intel Report:**

 **File Designation: Transformer Gundam Specifications**

 **Update: Corrupted Files Have Been Defragmented. Further Updates May Still Occur Should Necessity Arise**

 **Extrapolating...Displaying Data on Recently Completed File. No Other Files To Be Displayed at This Time**

 **File ID: ZGMF-CX20A Strike Freedom Gundam**

 **Pilot: Admiral Kira Yamato of the Z.A.F.T. Forces FAITH Unit, Gundam Team Leader**

 **History: Successor to the original Freedom Gundam, this machine was first of the CX Mobile Suit series. It was first deployed before being fully completed during a confrontation between Z.A.F.T. and Decepticon Forces that were commanded by the fallen Prime, Sentinel, and the Z.A.F.T. Warship _Eternal_ , which took place during the Terrible Autobot Civil War.**

 **STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS:**

 **Energon Reactor Core**

 **Artificial T-Cog**

 **Arm Blades:**

 **Arm Blasters:**

 **Alt Mode:**

 **OTHER NOTABLE ARMAMENTS AND FEATURES:**

 **Beam Sabers**

 **DRAGOON System**

 **Multi-Phase Beam Cannon**

 **Railgun**

 **Beam Shield Generator**

* * *

 ** _AN: Now for those of you who had guessed that the universe we would see next in the story when we came to this chapter would be that of Gundam 00, I can only say that you should take pride in the fact that you were at least half right in that regard. What you've seen here is actually a little sneak preview for my next Transformers&Gundam crossover series, entitled Transformers 00, and as the title and everything we've just seen here would suggest, it is indeed a crossover between Gundam 00, and Transformers Prime, and in a small way Transformers Robots in Disguise 2015. Be honest, who's excited for that?_**

 ** _Bumblebee: I kinda am._**

 ** _Arcee: Same here._**

 ** _Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Ultra Magnus: Us too._**

 ** _Starscream: Well of course you lot are. You're actually going to be in it._**

 ** _AN: Sheesh. Some people...So while I've got you all interested, let me tell you a little about the upcoming universe of Transformers 00._**

 ** _Now, Transformers 00 takes place after the events of Predacons Rising, and starting from the first episode of Gundam 00, as the Autobots return to Earth once again with a new mission: to stop fugitive Decepticons that have escaped from justice and are attempting to either harm or take the planet for themselves, be it for the glory of their lost leader or for their own, twisted reasons. Among the Autobots are the returning members of Team Prime, Bumblebee, Arcee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, Smokescreen, Wheeljack, and Ultra Magnus, along with a few other additional faces like former Decepticon Knockout, and RID 2015 characters Fixit, Strongarm, and Sideswipe. Eventually they come to form an alliance with Celestial Being once they've pretty much proven and confirmed that the two groups share a common goal, but it's not exactly made easier when they steal Celestial Being's thunder by interrupting their little declaration to the world with one of their own, featuring a recording of the late Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. We'll see a few other characters from both Transformers Prime and Robots in Disguise 2015 in that story, be it for the Autobots or the Decepticons, but they'll all be characters who have appeared in one franchise or the others, so no need to worry your heads about trying to guess who shows up there._**

 ** _On another note, this chapter actually served as both a preview and a tie-in for this new story idea of mine, as it will have something of an influence on events that take place later on in Transformers 00. Since this takes place after Predacons Rising, I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the status of Optimus Prime when the story begins, and since Optimus Prime from the Gundam SEED Prime series showed up there...well, I do think I mentioned that they took a few CNA samples to confirm that he was who he claimed to be, so what do you think could happen there?_**

 ** _Pretty exciting huh?_**

 ** _Dearka: I just find it a little more liberating. Now we're not the only ones getting pulled back into working with you for another project so soon._**

 ** _Smokescreen: Hey, it's not like all of us Transformers are going to be getting back into the action for lyokoMARVELanime when Transformers 00 rolls around. Just us more notable 'Bots from Transformers Prime and other characters like that._**

 ** _AN: Well if you want to look at it like that...So I've kept you all long enough, and if you want to know anymore about Transformers 00_ _, you'll just have to wait until the story's big premier to find out. Sorry to keep you waiting in that regard, but hey, I'd like to finish one Transformers and Gundam crossover before I start on a second one. Now, let's get a move on with things, and let you all move Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The situation continues to grow ever more desperate for the Autobots, Gundam Team, and their allies back in the primary universe, and the team researching ways to bring the sixteen lost heroes back home again are rapidly redoubling their efforts in any desperate attempt they can manage to bring their friends home. Can the various teams of heroes across the universe hold out for just a little longer, or at least until the greatest reinforcements they could receive arrives? And when Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset appear before them, can Bumblebee, Yzak, Grimlock, and Predaking hold the two off until their friends finally return? Only one thing is certain: if there was ever a moment that could be considered the final push in retrieving the lost Autobots and Gundam pilots, this is it. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 29: Heroic Return** ** _. Autobots, Gundam Team, stand fast until help arrives in a blaze of glory!_**

 ** _Yep, we're coming to the end of this arc of the story, but until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	29. Heroic Return

_**AN: Hey everyone, sorry for the wait, but we are now back for another round in the Cybertron Cosmic Era, and we're now another chapter closer to both the end of this story, and the end of the Gundam SEED Prime Trilogy. It's almost kind of sad that we're nearing the end of this epic, but at the same time, for me, it's actually a bit of a relief. After working on this for so long, I'll finally be able to bring this story to its final close.**_

 _ **Cagalli: Shouldn't you be saying these things**_ **after** _ **you write and post the final chapter?**_

 _ **AN: Maybe, but I just...I want a moment to really let it sink in, ya know?**_

 _ **Shinn: Hey, I've gotta ask you guys, what're some of your favorite moments from working with this series?**_

 _ **Kira: I think my favorite moment is from back in the first story, in the first Orb Missions chapter, when Miss Erica and I joined Optimus and Ironhide in retrieving the Star Saber, and I ended up in a face-off with Megatron himself. It was the first time we really had a Gundam fighting a Transformer, and we didn't waste time with working our way up from any of the basic grunts, we had gone right to the biggest and baddest of them all.**_

 ** _Cagalli: Nice. I'm going to have to go with the moment when I personally objected to marrying Yuna at the alter and then punched him in the face in Destiny Sentinels. That was a lot of fun._**

 ** _Athrun: Yeah, I think we all got a kick out of that one._**

 ** _Everyone: [laughter all around]_**

 ** _Shinn: I think my favorite moment was when I led the charge in the_ Minerva _joining up with the Autobots of Team Prime, and started off by blasting at Rey. That felt really good considering how much of a bastard he was in the original continuity of SEED Destiny. No offense pal._**

 ** _Rey: None taken. I feel the same way about how I acted in that continuity after looking back on it._**

 ** _Luna: Hey, you know what we should be doing instead of just talking about this stuff? We should have like a flashback chapter where we're all talking about this._**

 ** _AN: Absolutely not! We are definitely not doing_ anything _like that, and don't you dare suggest we do otherwise, understand?!_**

 ** _Everyone other than AN: Yes sir!_**

 ** _AN: Good. Oh and for those of you who are wondering what took so long for this update, well part of the reason is because I was on vacation for a couple of weeks and didn't have my computer with me, and I also had a couple of new stories put into the works. If you haven't jumped over to my profile in a while, then you should know that these newest titles are a new little superhero adventure, Avengers Academy and my newest Kingdom Hearts story, Kingdom Hearts: Dual Keys. For more information, jump over to my profile or just read the stories for yourselves._**

 ** _Athrun: You just can't stop coming up with new ideas, can you?_**

 ** _AN: Nope, but I am still trying to think of a title for one of my newest ideas, which is a crossover between Spider-Man and Final Fantasy XIII, so that's a thing. Anyway, I'll let you guys get on with the story, so let's roll out!_**

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 29: Heroic Return**

 **Location: Main Universe, Velocitron**

Things had begun evening out in the battle on the speed planet for a while, thanks in no small part to the quick actions that the Aerialbots and the Velocitronians were able to take in the defense of the world, along with the leadership of Override and Hot Shot, and for a short time it looked like they would be able to drive the 'Cons back. That quickly changed when a second, much large force of Vehicons, Predacon drones, and HorseMan mobile suits suddenly sprung up before the defenders' optics, led by the pilot who had identified himself as Prayer Reverie, and they were soon pushed back into a struggle to just survive. Even with the fastest of warriors on their side, there was little hiding the fact that the people of Velocitron were not the greatest of fighters at this point. Having a few Autobots on their side made up for that for a short time, but with this new, larger wave of enemies, that small benefit was making had started to make less and less of a difference.

That became much clearer when Clocker suddenly took a very severe hit from an enemy attack, even though he was fighting right next to Skids and Mudflap when it happened, and when the Second Coming of the Terror Twins moved to cover him long enough for a medic to come and help, they also received a fair amount of damage for their efforts. Seeing his friends in trouble immediately drew Sideswipe into action as well, and he was immediately moving like lightning across the battlefield until he was right next to his comrades and friends, only stopping to spare a few shots at any enemies that landed in his crosshairs for the briefest of moments. "This is Sideswipe! I need a medic at my location, now," the Autobot pilot shouted into his comm. link as he continued shooting his blasters at the enemy, now in more of an attempt to keep them from approaching than to actually take any out.

Sideswipe's request for medical assistance was soon granted by the resident medic of the Aerialbots, as Jetstorm was quick to arrive on the scene and begin using his Energon Repair Ray to reverse the damage that had been done to the three 'Bots. "Skis and Mudflap should be alright, most of the damage in their case is superficial, but Clocker needs to be moved to a medical station. He's lost a lot of energon and his damage is too great for a field repair to really make much difference," Jetstorm reported.

"No. I can…still fight," Clocker tried to protest.

"The Pits you can! If you really want to join the AllSpark right here and now, then fine, but I don't intend to let anyone die if I can help it," Jetstorm retorted. He then turned to Sideswipe and said, "I'm gonna need you to give me some cover while I get him out of here."

"Copy that," Sideswipe nodded, and he was immediately arming his other arm blaster to provide said covering fire along with Skids and Mudflap.

"Yeah, no one messes with our pals and gets away without getting scrapped," Skids shouted as his shots tore through some HorseMans and Vehicons.

"Aw yeah, boy! You mess with our pals, you mess with the twins, and you get scrapped like bad, rusted metal," Mudflap shouted in agreement.

Jetstorm had to admit that he found the two's spirit quite admirable, but he decided to leave that for later; right now, he had to get a patient to the field medical station that the Velocitronians had set up for such occasions. As he slowly moved Clocker though, the flyer could not help but despair at how much worse things were getting, and he could only pray that the others were fairing at least a little better than they were at the moment.

* * *

 **Location: Nebulous**

"Everybody get back," Elita shouted as Fortress Maximus and Scorpnok prepared to fire their weapons at each other once again, and just like the previous time they had fired at the same moment, their blasts collided, and a great explosion of energy tore through the surrounding area. Thankfully, most of the Autobots and their Headmaster allies were able to get clear before they were caught in the blast, while a good deal of Predacon drones and Vehicons were not so lucky, but now, there was even less cover for anyone on either side to use in order to avoid being hit by enemy fire.

"Well, this is going well," Inferno grumbled as he and Roadblock did their best to cover the rest of the Protectobots as they attempted to set up any kind of barricades they could so that their side would have a little bit of cover.

"Less griping and more shooting, soldier," Hardhead shouted as he raced forward to join them in their attempts, guns already blazing.

Neither of them had a chance to continue their conversation, as the two titans were suddenly joined by the Combaticons', who had quickly combined into Bruticus just seconds after making their presence known. When he saw this new addition to the battlefield, Brainstorm quickly remarked, "Our estimates show that at the current pace of the battle, and this newest addition to the enemy's forces, our chances of survival alone are now rapidly decreasing, let alone our chances of victory."

"Well do us all a favor and keep the statistics to yourself. Not everything can be calculated so easily," Evac told the Headmaster scientist, and he then turned to his own team and gave a simple order. "Protectobots, combine into Defensor!"

Instantly, each of the Protectobots broke off from what they were currently doing, and raced into the respective positions of their team's combined form, and in no time at all, Defensor was battling it out with Bruticus. If this had escaped anyone's notice, then they were most likely blind, deaf, or unconscious, because one would be questioning how anyone could miss a battle between four titans like this just as much as Elita One was praying that some form of miracle would arrive soon to save them from their desperate struggles.

* * *

 **Location: Junkion**

"Well, this could be going better," Thundertron sarcastically remarked as he cut down another attacking Vehicon, before he turned and blasted a Predacon drone and a HorseMan in quick succession. Not only were they now being assaulted by another, much larger and likely stronger wave of Decepticon forces, but they were also dealing with the Constructicons' combined form of Devastator as well. Add in the fact that Ro Co Zane was also present on the battlefield now in his own custom HorseMan, and no one was going to kid themselves into thinking that they would last very long at this rate.

This seemed to be pretty obvious to Blurr as well, because he was quickly tapping his comm. link and rapidly shouting, "Blurr to Cybertron or Earth or whoever can receive this signal. We're being overrun; things are bad, like really, really, really bad, and not getting better at all. Requesting backup if able to provide any. Please say you can provide backup; I'll take anything you can spare even if it's just a little Mini-Con. Is this comm. link even working?"

"Dish-appointed with satellite TV," Wreck-Gar remarked after bashing away another enemy with his make-shift staff and then firing his own blaster at the enemy forces.

Blurr did not need to be an expert to know that Wreck-Gar was actually asking if he was getting a signal through at all, but before the fast-talking Autobot could answer, he received an answer from Blaster, who had instantly rapped, _"Sorry Blurr, old buddy, old pal. But things aren't any better anywhere else, so you'll just have to handle for now."_

"I'll handle, but I can't make any promises that we'll still be around when you finally manage to get someone out here," Blurr replied, and he was instantly off and running, shooting, punching, and kicking any foe that was foolish enough to fall into his path like a superhero with super speed when they really got going as he went through the enemy forces.

Wreck-Gar and Thundertron just stared at the Autobot as he continued doing so, despite how little or how much help it was, and when the former spoke again, no translation was necessary to guess what he meant when he said the next quote. "He's fast."

"That he is," Thundertron muttered in agreement, and he quickly turned back to the battle at hand along with Wreck-Gar, determined to not fall today. When he saw a number of Decepticon forces start deal some serious damage to his ship, which had taken to the battlefield as well, he instantly narrowed his optics and aimed whatever guns he had on him at the attackers and shouted, "Oi! Stop trying to blow holes in my ship!"

At that moment, the Decepticons learned full well that you do not ever mess with a ship that is being commanded by Captain Thundertron of the Star Seekers, be it the _Lament_ or otherwise, because the only thing left of the ones who had attacked said ship a moment ago afterwards were not just scrapped; they were utterly destroyed. Still, Thundertron's show of care for his vessel was making very little dent in the enemy's offensive efforts, leading him to wonder if this would end up being the day he and his vessel were both sunk after all.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

Things were not going much better on the homeworld of all Transformers, as evidenced by how brutal a beating the defenders of the metal world were taking at that very moment, whether it be in the case of the battles between Spartan's team and Cyclops', or everyone else. Though Spartan and his group were probably fairing the best out of everyone, but on the other side of things, the ones who seemed to be fairing the worst of it all, were Omega Supreme and his two passengers. Part of it may have had to do with the fact that the titanic Autobot was fighting a very large percentage of the enemy forces, but a good deal of the reason was most definitely because of the fact that he was only fighting at half strength, since he was still stuck in his alt mode at the moment. This was a problem that Ratchet had grown desperate to try and fix, and he was just about at the limit of his patience.

"Why the scrap isn't anything working," Ratchet shouted as he slammed his fist on the console he was working at in the most recent attempt to restore his old friend's transformation capabilities.

"Violent reaction not appreciated. Request: refrain from inflicting harm to the consoles of my alternate mode," Omega's voice boomed around the medic.

"Sorry old friend. I'm just getting really frustrated. Everything clearly checks out, but your T-Cog still doesn't seem to be receiving power," Ratchet explained.

"Well, the energon breach has been repaired, so it couldn't be that," Nicol reported as he came back into the room, moving to stand by a console once Ratchet had acknowledged his presence. "You have any other ideas, Omega?"

"Systems analysis currently running," Omega reported. "Analysis now completed. Possible cause for transformation capabilities continued state of inactivity: insufficient energon supply."

That made Nicol pause in thought for a minute before he said, "There was a lot of energon on the floor when I reached the point where it had been breaching…"

"And everything else we've already put into him is being used to keep us airborne and in the fight," Ratchet finished just before the large Autobot shook under the force of an explosion. Ratchet immediately rushed over to the nearest console so he could check the damage report, and after seeing it, he quickly said, "We need to figure something out soon, because we're just about to lose all shields after that hit, and we've already lost at least one weapons bank. More to the point, we don't have time to stop at an energon fueling station both because we're too far away from the closest ones, and it would take far too long to get the necessary energon into Omega with such stations."

Nicol just gritted his teeth at this news, until his gaze moved over to a monitor showing security footage of where his Gundam was still standing and a thought struck him. "Ratchet, do you still have the Nero Blitz connected to Omega's energon core?"

"Technically, it's connected to his energon intake systems that are most directly connected to his core, yes. Why do you ask," Ratchet questioned.

"Maybe we could use its Energon Reactor Core to power up Omega's transformation systems," Nicol suggested. "It worked before when we brought him back online, so why wouldn't it work again?"

"Absolutely not," Ratchet protested. "Using your Gundam to restore power to Omega's core is one thing, but if we really want to use it to restore Omega to his full capabilities, we'd most likely have to drain the Nero Blitz completely dry of all energon in its systems! More to the point, a sudden intake of that much energon could also cause serious damage to Omega as well!"

"At this point, there's nothing we can do that doesn't come with some type of risk. At least if we try this, the benefits we'd get out of it working would likely outweigh the negatives," Nicol argued.

"Don't you understand what this would mean either way if we do try this? You won't be able to enter the battle at all without putting yourself at an even greater risk than you normally do when you're piloting your machine," Ratchet pointed out to Nicol.

"Which do you think would make more of a difference here? Having me get into the battle with a Nero Blitz that isn't at its maximum power, or having a fully restored Omega Supreme enter the battle," Nicol immediately questioned.

Ratchet did not have an argument for that one, but before he could even attempt to think of one, Omega suddenly added his voice to the argument. "Proceed with Nicol Amalfi's suggestion."

"Omega," Ratchet asked in surprise.

"Sometimes, we must take great risks to save what's most important," Omega said, leading Ratchet's optics to widen a little in realization that this was something that he had once said to Omega a long time ago before he was forced to place the titan into stasis in order to keep him alive.

Seeing that he had been outvoted, Ratchet sighed in defeat and then looked over to his human companion and said, "Alright. Get down there and prep the Nero Blitz for one more energon transfer, but bear in mind, if this is going to work then you'll need to have only the bare minimum of necessary devices running on the Gundam, otherwise this may not work at all."

Nicol instantly nodded and was immediately racing back down to where his Gundam was waiting for him. After climbing into the cockpit of the machine and making sure that everything other than what was absolutely necessary for the process they were about to perform was switched off, Nicol reported that he was ready, and after a few seconds or so, he received the signal to start from Ratchet. The instant he was given the signal to begin, Nicol started pumping everything the Nero Blitz's Energon Reactor Core had into Omega Supreme, and he could only watch as the energon levels of his trusted machine for so many years began to rapidly drop at a much faster rate than he had ever seen before in every engagement he had in the machine. For a few minutes, nothing seemed to happen, and when the Nero Blitz's systems all finally shut down completely, Nicol was starting to think that it did not work, until the familiar sound that all Transformers made when transforming suddenly reached his ears, only at a much slower pace than normal, indicating one thing.

Outside of Omega, everyone had to stop and stare for a minute as the red and gold ship that had previously been taking a heavy beating suddenly began to shift and change, until the ultimate titan of all Autobot titans stood on the battlefield in his robot mode, weapons ready for action, and he simply glared at the invading attackers before he bellowed a phrase that he had not said in quite a few years. "Omega Supreme: activated and ready."

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

If Cybertron was facing the worst out of all the battles in the current Decepticon offensive, then Earth was facing a close second, and it was fighting a battle on two fronts. Out in space, Jazz was at the forefront of the battle in orbit aboard the _Omega III_ , along with Kisaka and DaCosta on the _Kusanagi_ and the _Eternal_ respectively, and none of the Decepticons up there were making it easy on any of them. There often moments when each ship's main guns were fired only to have little to no effective damage against the enemy fleet before them, but that did not keep them down for long, as they proved by throwing everything they and the rest of their fleet had against them shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for things back down on Earth.

The remaining Wreckers and Leobreaker and some of his forces ended up being deployed to various points on the planet to assist in fighting off the invaders, while both the _Minerva_ and the _Seraphim_ provided what support they could to any other area of the planet that they could reach, leaving only Bumblebee, the Dinobots, the Predacons, and the remaining survivors of Quintessa to defend the research facility alongside the Joule Team and Banagher. Needless to say, when the Unicorn Gundam first appeared on the battlefield and the group found out who was inside, Bumblebee and Yzak had immediately told Banagher to go back and help find a way to bring their friends back home, but Banagher quickly refused and insisted that he stay and help. Before either of the two commanders could attempt to protest further, Banagher punctuated his point by blowing an attacking Predacon drone, two HorseMans, and three Vehicons out of the battle with only two shots from his machine's rifle and a quick swing of one of its beam sabers, and that was before it had morphed into a Gundam, and after seeing that, neither of the two commanders could argue any further. Even with Banagher's added assistance though, the battle did not seem to be moving in their favor or really in the direction of anyone's favor by very much at the moment, and to Bumblebee, that was not good news.

"Bumblebee to Miss Erica, tell me some good news," the Earth Division leader practically pleaded as he paused in his firing on enemy forces to check in with the research team for a brief moment.

 _"We're doing everything we can over here, Bee, but every time we think we've gotten close to a solution, it slips through our fingers,"_ Erica reported.

"I'm not hoping to hear about a perfect solution at this point, Erica. I just need you to do something that will bring our guys back, preferably before we're all scrap," Bumblebee said as he slashed his wrist blade through a HorseMan mobile suit, after which, he could have sworn he got a glimpse of one of the pilots of the trio of mobile suits that had been assigned to the _Dominion_ years ago. He did not stick around very long to see which one though, since he had other things to worry about.

 _"Well you may not have even that at the rate we're going,"_ Sai stated, adding his two cents to the conversation. _"The problem at this point isn't recreating the anomaly that our guys fell into; it's making sure that no one on our side is pulled in when we open it. In addition to that, when we open the gate, we need to make sure that it homes in on the exact point in reality that each of them had been transported to, so that we can effectively extract them from that point of landing, even they had been relocated from their original landing positions since their arrival."_

"Say that again in English, or at least in a way that Grimlock would understand," Bumblebee groaned.

"Hey! Me, Grimlock heard that," the aforementioned Dinobot shouted from his position on the other side of the battlefield as he incinerated a number of Terrorcons with his Dino mode's flamethrower.

Grimlock's words went unacknowledged as Feldt attempted to simplify the previous explanation for Bumblebee. _"What Sai means is that we're trying to make sure that we don't recreate the anomaly exactly like the one that pulled our teammates away, and we're also trying to find a way to bring them right back here even if they weren't where they were when they first arrived in whatever dimension they ended up in, since we can't be sure that they'll be able to reach the portals on their own fast enough."_

"Well whatever you do, just do it fast. We need reinforcements," Bumblebee shouted.

 _"Where do we need them the most,"_ Ironhide asked.

"You'd be better off asking where we don't need them," Bumblebee replied. Not two seconds after he had spoken, a loud explosion and the sounds of Autobot troops screaming reached his audio receptors, and upon turning to the source, Bumblebee's optics immediately spotted Galvatron and the Advocate Gundam approaching the facility, the Dark Star Saber firmly in the former's hand. "I'm gonna have to call you guys back. The head honchos of the 'Cons just showed up."

Bumblebee cut off the communication after that before anyone could argue with him, and he immediately moved to the forefront of the battlefield, with Grimlock, Predaking, Yzak, and Dearka falling in right beside him, each fully intending to take the fight directly to the two enemy leaders themselves. Galvatron and Le Creuset could both only smirk in amusement at the forces that were approaching them, each feeling that these enemies were likely to be far beneath their notice. Predaking may prove to be something of a challenge if he fought in just the right way, but they were both doubtful of the idea that the Predacon leader would do such a thing. After a few more minutes, the two groups' slow approaches to one another began to grow in speed, and until they were all racing to meet one another in battle, weapons ready.

* * *

No one in the research facility could stop themselves from wincing a little when they saw one of their friends outside take a serious blow on the security feed, but they all managed to shake it off and bring their focus back to their current tasks in trying to find a way to get their friends home. This was not an easy assignment, because like Sai had previously said, while they had indeed found a way to open another portal like the one that had burst to life out in space, they were still nowhere close to finding a way to make sure that no one would on their side would get sucked into it when it did open, or a way to bring their friends back from wherever they had landed. It also did not help that they did not even have a way to direct the portal to direct the portal to said locations, which would have made things a little bit easier for them in the long run, but right now, they were too short on time to worry about such sensitive matter, so they had to settle for something that would pull all of the lost Autobots and Gundam Team members back at once.

"What if we reconfigure the gravitational compensator of the Space Bridge to reverse the pull of the anomaly, and make is so…" Sai started to suggest.

"No, I already ran the numbers on that. We'd just make it so that we would be pulling whatever and whoever else is with our friends at the time, and then we'd have a new version of the same problem, only it would be trying to send back the ones who got pulled here," Erica dismissed.

"But if we were to set it so that the computer were to adjust the variables to compensate when necessary," Feldt started to say.

"We could potentially only direct the pull to anyone who actually belongs in our universe," Ironhide finished, having understood just enough to get what they were going for.

"That just leaves the problem of actually finding where they ended up. If space is vast, then reality is endless, so saying that it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack would be putting it mildly," Sai pointed out.

"I believe I may have a theory on how to solve that," Fixit announced. "Based on past experiences, and the notes I had gathered from previous similar trips through such portals, I believe I have pinpointed an exact energy signature that is consist among all those who pass through interdimensional portals. If we were to use this energy signature, along with the energy readings of energon from our own universe, I believe we may have something of a focusing censor to direct the portal to our friends."

"Like a kind of compass that would point to where our friends are," Erica simplified with a smile. "Brilliant! How soon can you get it working?"

"With assistance, I may be able to have it working within an Earth hour or so," Fixit replied.

"Considering what's going on just outside, I think it's a safe bet that our guys may not even have a nano-cycle," Ironhide pointed out when another explosion from outside suddenly shook the facility.

"We'll work fast then," Sai said. "It doesn't have to be to any specific energon signal, just the ones that belong to our friends, or really just the ones that belong in our universe in general."

* * *

The minute that they had met the two psychopaths in the middle of the battlefield, Bumblebee's team was throwing everything they had at their two opponents, each of them knowing that if they were to do any less, they would most likely not survivor. This sentiment was quickly proven true, as Predaking and the two Autobots were having a difficult time holding Galvatron back alone, and Dearka and Yzak were not doing much better in keeping Le Creuset back, even after Shiho and Heine joined in. Every blow they managed to avoid seemed to have a ripple effect that would end up striking them, like a powerful echo of the strike, and most of the strikes they landed against their enemies, the two seemed to just shrug off like it was nothing most of the time. Most of the time it seemed as though only Predaking and Grimlock were able to deal any serious damage to the two, and even that was not very often.

Still, it did not stop Bumblebee from continuing to lead the charge against their foes, a fact that he proved true when he raced forward with his wrist blades at the ready, and both Grimlock and Predaking were both quick to follow after him. Sadly, Bumblebee's skill at swordsmanship was nothing compared to Galvatron's, a fact that the Decepticon leader made quite clear when he easily parried Bumblebee's strikes while evading Grimlock's much more savage and brutal ones and sidestepping Predaking's attacks before he finally blasted them all away with a sweep of the Dark Star Saber. "Your efforts are amusing, Bumblebee, but even now, you are nothing more than a mere insect to me," Galvatron chuckled, mockingly.

Bumblebee just narrowed his optics in response to this before he sprang up and delivered a hard hit across Galvatron's front, making the Decepticon stumble back a little bit. Once he was firmly on his feet and exchanging glares with Galvatron, Bumblebee said only one thing in reply to the Decepticon's previous comment. "So you can remember my name after all."

Galvatron did not get a chance to respond, as Predaking immediately charged him again with a roar, forcing him to move aside and duck down in order to avoid the attack. With Predaking's back to him, Galvatron was easily able to respond in kind to the Predacon's attempt at attacking him by slashing him in the back with the Dark Star Saber, and then swiping his claws into the same location, forcing Predaking to spin around. Using the momentum of said spin, Predaking raised his arm in an attempt to slash at Galvatron with his own claws, and he just had to smirk in response when both his hit connected along with the follow up strike, but that smirk quickly vanished when Galvatron managed to block his third attack. Galvatron then brought his cannon to bare, and fired it on Predaking while he was still at pointblank range. Thankfully, Predaking's armor kept him safe from suffering any serious damage, but it did still hurt him quite a bit.

Predaking just managed to lift himself up to his knees by the time Galvatron had reached him, Dark Star Saber ready to strike a finishing blow, and the Decepticon warlord merely said, "It was foolish of you to betray me, Predaking, and if you had been smart in this attempt, you would have fought me as the beast that you are."

Thankfully, Grimlock came crashing into Galvatron before he could deliver a blow against Predaking, much to the Predacon leader's unspoken thanks, and the two then shared a small look between them before facing Galvatron and as Predaking declared, "You wish to fight a beast Galvatron…"

"Then we'll give you two," Grimlock finished, and with that, the two had assumed their bestial forms with loud roars that seemed to echo throughout the battlefield and charged Galvatron, with Bumblebee falling in right behind them, his wrist blasters firing.

Things were not going much better for the four defending Gundam pilots in their battle against the disgraced Z.A.F.T. commander, as evidenced when Heine was suddenly blasted out of the air, and forced to switch the Saviour out of its mobile armor mode before it took any serious damage upon landing. That did not keep him down for long, as he instantly brought up his machine's Plasma Beam Cannons and fired them at the Advocate Gundam the minute he had a clear shot. Since Le Creuset had been engaging with Yzak and Shiho at the time, he did not see Heine's attack coming, and therefore was barely able to raise his beam shield in time to block it. As a result of this, he did receive some damage from said attack and was thrown a little off balance, a fact that was capitalized on by Dearka as he instantly fired a barrage from as many of the Verde Buster's weapons as he could. Le Creuset was soon able to regain his control again after said barrage, and he did so just in time to parry and counter a blow from the Rosso Aegis, eliciting a scream from Shiho when her machine was damaged.

"Damn you, you bastard," Yzak shouted when he heard Shiho's cry of pain, and he was instantly charging in with one of the Blu Duel's arm blades ready with a beam saber in its free hand. Le Creuset easily dodged most of Yzak's sword strikes, mostly due to the fact that the silver haired pilot was lashing out in anger for what the masked man had just done, until he finally struck back with the Advocate's own arm blade, throwing the Blu Duel off to the side the minute the blade struck.

"You are quite the talented fighter, Yzak, as are each of your teammates, but unlike Kira Yamato, each of you are no Ultimate Coordinator," Le Creuset mocked, hoping to get more of a rise out of Yzak.

His attempt failed however, as Yzak simply pushed the Blu Duel back into a standing position as he said, "Yeah, we know that we're no Kira Yamato, but unlike you, we don't have any sort of hatred towards him over a reason as petty as yours!"

Le Creuset quickly found the tables turned on him, because instead of him enraging Yzak, it was Yzak who managed to anger Le Creuset, and as a result, the masked pilot immediately charged in and started lashing out at his former subordinate in anger for the insult he had just been dealt. This played to Yzak's advantage quite easily, as now he was able to evade or parry any strikes that Le Creuset threw at him, until Dearka landed a shot on one of the Advocate's legs, while Heine blasted one of its arms with the Saviour. The two then threw up another barrage while Yzak took the time to move back and check on his other teammate, who was still down after the last hit she had received.

"Shiho, are you okay," Yzak shouted.

"Yeah…Yeah I think so," Shiho groaned in reply after a few seconds. "Rosso Aegis took a fair amount of damage from that last hit, but I can still fight."

"Then go and backup Banagher. We can handle things here," Yzak ordered her.

"Forget it! I'm not letting you fight that psycho alone," Shiho protested.

"If you stay with us, you'll be fighting at a disadvantage, and making us constantly worry about you instead of focusing on the fight," Yzak pointed out.

Shiho did not like it, but she could see Yzak's reasoning behind that statement, so she found she could do nothing more than agree to follow his orders, begrudgingly and then move her machine to backup the rookie Gundam pilot. Before she had left though, she told Yzak one simple thing. "You had better make it out of this alive."

Yzak just smirked a little in response to this before he said, "Just worry about keeping yourself alive, and I'll be fine."

Shiho nodded in response, and the two turned away from each other so that they could return to the battles that were awaiting them.

* * *

Back inside the facility, the team had finished work on the scanner, or "compass" as Erica had described it, and now they were about to attempt their first test run of the portal device to see if they could at least lock on to one if any of their friends who had been scattered throughout reality. For safety's sake, they had all made sure to secure themselves to the floor or a wall, behind a barricade of some type, and once everyone gave some type of signal to show that they were ready, Erica nodded to Ironhide to say he was clear to start the device. Ironhide immediately nodded back in reply and hit the controls, activating the scanner that they would use to search reality for their friends along with the controls for the portal, and the gate jumped to life in a manner much similar to that of a Ground Bridge or a Space Bridge. The only difference at the moment being was that it seemed to fluctuate between various different colors like a rainbow instead of just being one specific color like how the Space Bridges were blue or the Ground Bridges were green. Thankfully, they felt nothing pull them towards the vortex, so they could only assume that was a good sign, but there was nothing to indicate that they had succeeded yet, until Sai suddenly picked up something on his scanner.

"I think I've got something…a reading that's similar to that of the one of the Gundams and Autobots each," Sai shouted over the noise of the open vortex, and not a minute later, they all saw something flash before their eyes that indicated that their device was working.

There in the vortex, flashed an image of the Infinite Justice and Smokescreen, fighting in space alongside another group of Autobots, who appeared to be allied with a blue and red colored Decepticon, against another version of the Decepticon army, but a minute later, the image changed to show the Star Force Strike and Wheeljack fighting against a large 'Con and small group of animalistic Transformers along with another, much different Autobot group. Just as quickly as the first time, the image in the vortex changed again, this time to show that Gundams were more common than Transformers, as they all saw Shinn and Bulkhead engaging in battle alongside a team of five different Gundams. They just glimpsed another image that showed Waltfeld and Ultra Magnus fighting on the surface of what looked like a large meteor with another group of Gundams before the vortex suddenly sparked and shut down in a brilliant explosion, making everyone duck for cover out of fright.

After checking to make sure no one was hurt, Erica looked back at the portal in dismay, thinking that it had been seriously damaged by the explosion. She quickly let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that the worst damage was some burnt out wiring and a little cosmetic damage, but that was a small comfort compared to what had just happened. "Well, the good news is, we now know that at least some of our friends are alright. The bad news is that it seems like the generator did not have Ground Bridge enough power to keep the portal open long enough for us to get a proper lock on any of them, let alone pull them through," Sai stated as he looked over his readings.

"I don't get it," Erica muttered. "All the simulations we ran indicated that this should have worked, but it seems like we're still missing some vital piece that would pull it all together."

"Wait…Sai said that there was not quite enough power in the generator, so what if we just added a few extra generators," Feldt suggested.

"We can't whip up a handful of Ground Bridge generators in a matter of minutes. Those things need weeks to be properly calibrated and adjusted for each bridge, and the Space Bridge variety takes about twice as long unless you're an expert on the things, and last I checked, none of us fit that bill," Ironhide disputed.

"Maybe we don't need the whole thing…just the pieces that regulate the power," Sai thought aloud. "If I'm looking at this right, it didn't malfunction because we weren't giving it enough power; the vortex we need just generates a greater frequency of power that is harder to manage than that of a typical Ground or Space Bridge, so if we add a few different regulators…"

"It'll compensate for the excess amount of power that's running through the device," Erica finished.

"Makes about as much sense as anything else in this does…I think," Ironhide shrugged.

A few minutes later, which was accompanied by some cringing at the sounds of more explosions and their friends outside letting out cries of pain that were loud enough to be heard on the security feed, the group was ready to make a second attempt, at which point Erica said, "Cross your fingers and hope this works, because if it doesn't…"

"We may not have anything left of the machine to make another attempt until it's already too late," Feldt asked.

"No, we may not be here at all, and neither will anyone else in Scotland," Erica corrected, giving a very deep sense of foreboding feeling to everyone present at this new knowledge. After a few moments of silence though, a resounding determination settled into everyone's faces, and Erica knew that they were all ready to take whatever risks they faced at this point, making it impossible for her to not smile in response to this.

After running through the same checks that they had in their first attempt, Erica and Ironhide activated the device once again, and this time, it seemed to stabilize much more easily than the first. Another difference from the previous attempt was that the images of their misplaced friends started coming and then changing between one another much more quickly, until the changes between the different images began to slow down, indicating that something was happening on the other ends of the portal. The team in the research facility could only pray that it was something good.

* * *

 **Location: After Colony Universe**

Waltfeld and Magnus had just returned from a particularly difficult battle against White Fang alongside three of the Gundam Team's members, and they had to say that they were a bit disappointed by the fact that they did not really have to do all that much. They were grateful at the same time, since it saved them quite a few precious resources, like the amount of energon that Ultra Magnus needed, but they did not expect the battle to have been so easy to handle. Another thing that they did not expect was for what appeared to be a small crack in the air to suddenly start opening up near where they were standing in the hangar, until the crack suddenly burst into a full blown portal not unlike the one that had brought them here in the first place.

"What's going on now," Duo asked as he raised his arms over his head to protect himself from the odd wind that had started blowing through the hangar once the full portal had formed.

"Some kind of White Fang tactic that we didn't suspect," Quatre suggested as he and the others in the room did the same as Duo.

After looking at said portal properly for a minute, Waltfeld immediately spotted a very familiar sight on the other side, and he quickly turned to board the Gaia once again as he shouted, "That's not White Fang! I'd say that's mine and Ultra Magnus' ticket home, that is assuming you boys don't mind us ducking out on you right now."

When no one said anything in protest, Ultra Magnus and Waltfeld both gave the young pilots a nod of acknowledgement and thanks before they started making their way towards the portal, hoping that they would end up where they seemed to be going.

* * *

 **Location: Future Century Universe**

Shinn was starting to regret asking Domon to train him, because ever since they had stopped the Dark Gundam, the King of Hearts had been running him ragged into the ground when they were not taking care of any Dark Army stragglers that had somehow managed to continue functioning or when Domon was not either in or watching a match in the tournament finals. Bulkhead had found it admirable that he was willing to keep going, so Shinn was not willing to admit that he was praying for something to come and get them out of there, for both of their sakes. Thankfully, those prayers were soon answered when a portal suddenly burst open a few feet away from them, drawing his current sparring match with Domon to a quick halt as they turned to face it, and when Shinn saw some faint images of his home on the other side, he mentally cheered in relief at the fact that the torture that Domon called martial arts training was over for him at last and then raced over to the Grand Destiny.

"Do you really have to go now? We still haven't had a proper sparring match with you yet," Chibodee asked with a challenging grin.

Shinn smirked in response as he said, "As tempting as that offer is, I'm gonna have to take a rain check. Our friends need us back home."

"We understand. Just always remember Shinn Asuka, that a warrior's spirit burns proudly within you, and that is never something to hate or be ashamed of," Domon nodded to his unexpected student.

Shinn nodded in response to this and then powered up his Gundam before turning to Bulkhead and asking, "Ready to get back home and see how badly the others need us, Bulk?"

"I think the better question would be if they're ready to handle the new you, Shinn," Bulkhead admitted. "I doubt anyone will expect you to have become something of a martial artist while we were away."

"Hey, I'm not a martial artist, Bulkhead. I'm a warrior, and besides that, I'm completely nuts just like the rest of these guys," Shinn reminded his friend with a joking smile that drew chuckles from everyone around him.

* * *

 **Location: The Three Various Points in the Unicron Trilogy**

All across the three different points in this universe in which three different teams of an Autobot and a Gundam pilot had landed, the same such portals had opened up in various different locations. In the case of the time where Rey and Springer had landed, and that of where Lunamaria and Crosshairs had landed, it was at a peaceful moment, in which they were all taking a breath during a brief moment of peace in their missions, and the two pairs were able to get reassurances from both Autobot teams they had joined up with that they would be able to handle themselves, so they easily left with confident smiles on their faces that these two groups would be alright even without them around. This was not the same story with Athrun and Smokescreen, as the portal had opened up while they were stranded on a deserted planet alongside Hot Shot, Red Alert, and Starscream, upon which they had encountered not only Megatron, Demolisher, and Cyclonus, but an evil clone of Optimus Prime as well, which seemed to regenerate from even the most deadly of attacks so long as one piece of him remained.

The battle had caused the both groups of Cybertronians to incur a great deal of damage, save for Athrun and Smokescreen, and they would surely have perished had a last minute miracle from the Mini-Cons not occurred in which the damaged Transformers were all repaired and then reformatted, leading to some serious cosmetic changes for the entire group. Athrun overheard Starscream mention that he looked like this universe's version of Thundercracker, while Megatron declared that he had been reborn as Galvatron. Before either of the two could comment on any of this though, the portal had burst open, and Athrun and Smokescreen found themselves faced with whether or not they should leave now and abandon their new friends, or stay and lose what may prove to be their only chance to go home.

Seeing the indecisiveness that had befallen his two new friends that had helped him so much, Starscream looked at the two and said, "Go on Athrun and Smokescreen. Go back home and leave the rest of this to us."

"But Starscream," Smokescreen started to say.

"Don't worry, kid. We can handle Megatron and those other two idiots, and besides, the other Autobots will be here any second now. Besides, you've got your own war to fight, don't you," Starscream smirked at the young Autobot in reassurance.

"That's Galvatron to you traitor," the Decepticon leader of this dimension corrected with a snarl, only to be ignored for the most part since he was not a part of this matter.

As if to prove Starscream's point, the Autobot ship that Athrun and Smokescreen had helped the team finish constructing and then joined them aboard suddenly whooshed into view, and from the ship dropped the real Optimus Prime with their newest team member, Overload right behind him. When Optimus landed and saw the portal, it took him little time to figure out what it was, and he immediately shouted, "Athrun, Smokescreen, go! This may be your only chance! Don't give up your chance to get home and help save your universe for the sake of ours."

Seeing that they could not dissuade their new friends, and knowing that no matter what universe it was they could never argue with Optimus Prime, Smokescreen and Athrun both nodded in response to this, and immediately began heading towards the portal as fast as they could. As he approached it, Athrun looked to his new partner and asked, "Well, ready to see what's going to end up being your new home, Blast Blade?"

The Mini-Con just gave a series of beeps and blips in reply, which Athrun quickly understood to be a very excited yes, if his smile was anything to go by, and he immediately nodded to his partner and accelerated the Infinite Justice forward even more so that he could finally introduce his new friend to the rest of his current friends.

* * *

 **Location: Universal Century Universe**

Cagalli and Arcee were not entirely sure how it had happened, but somehow, they had ended up down on Earth with the UC versions of Banagher and Audrey as they continued trying to find and secure Laplace's Box, and in the process, they had become allied with Zinnerman and the soldiers under his command, while Marida had been brainwashed and forced to become the pilot of a black Unicorn Gundam that was called the Banshee. Thankfully, they had found a way to save Marida and meet up with the _Nahel Argama_ once again in space. Now all they had left to do was secure the box. Of course, that would end up being a mission for those who were native to the Universal Century, as a portal suddenly burst forth in the space directly ahead of the two ships, and Arcee and Cagalli were quick to realize that it was likely a way for them to get home.

The blonde had to pause for a moment before she headed for her machine, and looked to the two alternate versions of her friends in concern until Banagher smiled a bit and said, "Don't worry, Cagalli. We'll be fine; you've helped to make sure of that. Just go back to your universe so that you can help them too."

Cagalli was still a bit hesitant to leave, until Audrey stepped forward and said, "We know what our answer is now, so please, believe in us like we have come to believe in you." That served to be the final bit of motivation that Cagalli needed to get going, but before she left, Audrey stopped her so she could ask one last question. "In your lifetime, did your universe's version of myself and Banagher…are they happy in the lives that they've found?"

Cagalli smiled, knowing full well what the girl was really asking, or at least a close guess of what her real question most likely was, and she simply replied, "Yeah, they are. I'd like to think that they have found their own answer too, and that they became truly strong the minute they found each other."

Audrey nodded in thanks to the blonde for that, and Banagher did the same a minute later, though he did not look like he completely understood the hidden meaning behind those words, and with that, the Gundam pilot from another universe and her Autobot partner departed, praying that their friends from the Universal Century would survive whatever their next encounter would lead them into.

* * *

 **Location: Robots In Disguise Universe**

There was really nothing spectacular to say for when the portal opened for Mu and Wheeljack. They were simply assisting the Autobot Brothers with a patrol when T-AI called in and reported that her sensors had detected a strange anomaly forming a few miles ahead of them. Sure enough, just a short drive later, the group found the anomaly that T-AI had picked up on, and Mu and Wheeljack both gave the trio of brothers a fond farewell before blasting into the portal at their top speed. Watching over this from afar was none other than the Ultra Magnus of this universe, who could only smirk at the sight of the two leaving before he also took his leave of the area.

"It's actually a bit of a shame. I think I'm gonna miss those guys. That Wheeljack character was kinda fun to be around. Definitely my kind of Autobot," Magnus muttered to himself as he flew off before returning to the ground below and transforming to vehicle mode so he could drive away like a true robot in disguise.

* * *

 **Location: Transformers 00 Universe**

Kira and Optimus were still enjoying the company of their new friends from Celestial Being and the alternate versions of their friends back home, when the portal suddenly burst to life directly behind them, drawing everyone's attention away from the laughs and towards said portal, in which they saw an image of Optimus and Kira's friends waiting on the other side. Seeing this immediately prompted the two misplaced heroes to start preparing to leave, with Kira heading for the Strike Freedom and Optimus making sure that the Star Saber was secure on his back. Before Optimus could start walking towards the portal, he found himself being stopped by the Autobot Prime version of Bumblebee. "Do you really have to leave us again, Optimus," Bumblebee asked. "I know you're not our Optimus Prime, but we need you. We can't do this without you."

"You are wrong Bumblebee. You are more than capable of completing the mission you all face, just as you are a very capable leader," Optimus corrected.

"No, I'm not. I can't handle that kind of thing. What makes you think I'm even ready for it?"

"You are more than ready to lead, Bumblebee, both in mine and Kira's universe and in this one. Do not ever doubt yourself," Optimus reassured the former scout, earning a nod of understanding from Bumblebee as his face hardened into a determined expression that proved his resolve to not let his former leader down was very strong, alternate version or otherwise.

Kira also had a final encounter with one of the people from this universe, only in his case it was with Setsuna F. Seiei, who had a fierce look in his eyes with a ghost of a smile on his face. "Admiral Kira Yamato, never forget you and I…both of us…we are Gundams."

Kira knew exactly what the Gundam Meister of Exia meant by that statement, and he immediately smirked in reply as he extended a hand to Setsuna and said, "We are Gundams, Setsuna F. Seiei."

After a moment of hesitance, Setsuna eventually accepted the offered handshake while his ghost of a smile made itself just a little more known, but only to anyone who was looking directly at him like Kira was. Once they had released their handshake, Kira boarded and reactivated the Strike Freedom, and joined Optimus in their departure through the portal back to their universe, but not before the last Prime stopped to give the heroes of this dimension, human and Autobot, one final nod of confidence to show that he knew that no matter what difficulties they faced, in the end, they would succeed in their mission, and with that, the two vanished from the era that they had grown stronger in while finding new friends.

* * *

 **Location: Main Universe, Earth**

As the images continued flashing through the portal, Sai and Feldt both saw that the readings were beginning to rise to a point that would be too much for the machine to handle, and they were about to shout out for Erica and Ironhide to shut it down, but the two just waved them off, since they had seen their friends moving towards the portal from the other side. After a few seconds though, the portal finally shut down on its own, after letting out an explosion of energy, prompting Sai to jump over to Feldt so that he could shield her with his body. They both stayed like that for a few minutes until they realized that they were still alive and parted from each other, much to their slight disappointment, but upon turning to face the gateway again, they both stopped and stared in awe at what was now before them right along with Erica and Ironhide, while large grins slowly started to spread across each of their faces.

There, standing in the threshold of the portal, were sixteen figures, half of them clearly Cybertronian, and half of them Gundams, standing tall and proud as a sign of triumphant return, and even just from looking at them, they could all feel just how much stronger these sixteen were in comparison to how strong they were before, but they honestly did not care about such things, because all that mattered to them was that their friends were finally home.

A simple glance from Erica Simmons was all that Fixit needed to know what message he needed to send out along with Blaster. "Blaster, please help relay this message to any worlds that are closer to Cybertron's range of communication: attention all planets within range, reinforcements are inbound, now."

* * *

 **Location: Velocitron**

Hot Shot had finally reached his breaking point in terms of patience when it came to the 'Cons that were attacking Velocitron. They had already lost a lot of good people to these guys, and he was just about ready to charge in and blow every single 'Con opposing them to the Pits in anger for all those they had lost, but he somehow managed to keep a cool head and think rationally about such actions, so he simply kept firing as Override, Sideswipe, and Jetstorm helped move any injured they could to safety. Things were not made any easier by that pilot who called himself Prayer Reverie, considering said pilot was able to focus the HorseMans in much more coordinated effort than the random ravaging and rampaging that they were taking part in before, but he knew they had to hold out for just a little longer, because right now, they did not have many other options, even there was a chance that there was not any help coming.

That idea vanished when Fixit's message came in, but it also puzzled him at the same time since he thought that there was not anyone left to provide support to any of the battles that were taking place. His confusion was shared by his other comrades that had heard the message, as was made evident when Override came back over to him and said, "I thought there wasn't anyone left for the Autobots to send out as backup. Who could they possibly be sending us?"

"How about a couple of Wreckers," someone suddenly shouted, and a second later, a large, crimson blast flashed across the sky like lightning and tore through several enemy forces at once, and if anyone were to turn to the Aerialbots at that moment, everyone would see that they had shocked expressions on their faces that soon turned into broad grins.

"I don't believe it," Silverbolt exclaimed happily as he turned and saw the Star Force Strike flying into action in its Sky Grasper mode while Wheeljack came racing in from right behind him.

Once he was right in the middle of the battle zone, Mu transformed the Star Force Strike into Gundam mode and whipped out his machine's rifle and fired a powerful shot that tore through several enemies at once. At the same time, Wheeljack drove up a damaged piece of road, which actually proved to be a very good makeshift ramp, and transformed in midair while pulling his swords out for action, letting him slash through multiple different foes at once. "Gonna need one hell of a cleanup crew after this," Wheeljack shouted over the explosions that had his landing on the ground.

"Got that right," Mu agreed, and he then turned to the custom HorseMan mobile suit that was piloted by Prayer Reverie. "Hey kid, ready for round two?!"

Prayer did not get a chance to answer, as the Star Force Strike had immediately blasted towards him, arm blade activated and ready for action, and as a result, the two were clashing blades with each other, while Wheeljack was left to deal with Cyclonus and Slipstream, and Hot Shot and Override focused their attention on Ransack's forces. Such odds were no longer a problem for anyone, as evidenced by how Wheeljack was able to take down Cyclonus easily enough without expending very much energy at all, a fact that drew a smirk to his face as he muttered, "I never thought I'd say this, but thank you for the sparring matches, Ultra Magnus."

Mu ended up being the only one who heard Wheeljack's compliment, as everyone else was too busy driving back the enemy forces to really notice, and that led Prayer to think that the Hawk of Endymion had left himself open to attack. This was something that Mu had wanted him to think, as it easily allowed him to use the absorb system in the Star Force Strike's shield to absorb everyone ounce of energy that was in the beam blast that had been fired at him. With that done, Mu decided it was time to finish the little game he had been playing up until now and activated his Gundam's new Cosmic Charge Mode, shocking everyone on the battlefield when they saw the mobile suit change. Using the shock and awe to his advantage, Mu immediately transferred the energy that he had just absorbed from Prayer's recent attack in the Star Force Strike's rifle, and fired a powerful blast that easily tore through a little over half of the enemy forces and completely demolished a nearby mountain that had been just behind them.

Seeing this awesome new power of their enemies must have scared the Decepticon forces quite a bit, as Slipstream immediately scowled and started shouting for all Decepticons to retreat at once, and no one argued for even a microsecond. Seeing their enemies flee the battle in terror drew cheers of joy and triumph as the Star Force Strike descended to the ground so that it could stand alongside a smirking Wheeljack, who just spun his swords around in his hands before resting one on his shoulder while the other just hung down at his side.

* * *

 **Location: Junkion**

Even with Blurr upping his game so that he was fighting at his full strength, things had not improved on Junkion in the slightest, and now, it had reached a point where one would think that it was practically down to just Wreck-Garr, Thundertron, and Blurr, since most of the Star Seekers were now doing everything they could to help the wounded while those three had become the center of attention for the fight. "You know, it would usually be at this point where one would stick to the pirate code and exercise the oldest and most noble of pirate traditions," Thundertron remarked.

"And just what exactly would that be," Blurr quickly asked.

"To cut our losses and run away," Thundertron answered.

"You wouldn't dare," Wreck-Garr snarled, sounding like he was quoting a threatening warlord of some type.

"Fortunately, I never was one for tradition," Thundertron finished as he brought his sword to bear. "I intend to see this through to the end."

"And here I thought that a captain was supposed to go down with his ship, not before it," a familiar voice cut in before shouting out an unfamiliar phrase. "Grand Destiny Blazing Sword!"

An instant later, a flash of energy swung through the battlefield like a massive sword had come down to cut away the opposing forces, and upon turning to see who had executed such an attack, the three defenders of Junkion could only grin excitedly since they were now able to really understand the meaning behind the message that they had received a short time ago. "Well you took your sweet time getting here, lad," Thundertron smirked in good humor.

Descending onto the battlefield were none other than the Destiny Team, with the Grand Destiny leading the charge, and Bulkhead, Springer, and Crosshairs falling in right behind them. Once they were onsite, Springer had immediately taken to the air in his helicopter mode and began opening fire on anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path, while the rest of the group engaged the forces on the ground or that fell into their range of fire. Oddly enough, at least to everyone other than Bulkhead, Shinn seemed to take a more up close and personal approach to the fight by mainly using close-combat abilities, be it through the Grand Destiny's arm blades and beam sword, or with a variety of what looked like powerful martial arts moves. No one questioned it though, as it seemed to be working quite well for him, given how many enemies went up in explosions after he had finished with them, be they Terrorcons, Predacon drones, Vehicons, or HorseMans.

The sight of one of their enemies apparently playing with them, at least from his perspective, infuriated Ro Co Zane, and he immediately moved to engage the Grand Destiny, only to be intercepted when the Liberator appeared directly in front of him. "Where do you think you're going," Rey asked before he slammed a powerful punch into his foe's mobile suit, lighting the spark of battle between the two once again.

With her friends fighting such intense battles gave Lunamaria the chance she needed to move to a better position, while she pulled out her Cyber Key from the wrist device she now wore on her pilot suit. After spinning the key in her fingers for a bit, she quickly inserted the key into its slot on her controls, summoning the powerful Cyber Key to her machine, and activating its Heavy Beam Gatling Cannons. "Let's see how you guys like a taste of what the Pure Impulse can do with a little Cyber Key power," Lunamaria smirked in excitement at the chance to show off her newest trick. "Final Impulse Burst!"

A second later, the Gatling Cannons and all of her other long-range weapons burst to life with energy as they lit up the skies with a shower of energon blasts that tore through the various enemies that were unfortunate enough to fall into her line of fire. When the smoke finally cleared, there barely any surviving Terrorcons, HorseMans, or Vehicons, and the ones that did survive Luan's attack were barely in any condition to even be considered the smallest of threats. Even Devastator ended up being brought down and forced to separate back into the six Constructicons that made him up after he received a direct hit from Luna's attack, and they were just barely able to stand at the moment. Seeing this display of newfound power made Thundertron stare for a bit before he said, "I want one of those."

"You've gotten better, Luna," Rey remarked after pushing Co Zane away, but before he could engage his enemy again, his display suddenly lit up with a powerful glow, showing him an image that he did not expect to see, but smiled in welcoming of it all the same. "Shinn! Don't move for a second!"

"Why? What's wrong," Shinn asked, but the only answer he received was the Liberator releasing a pulse of energy that circled around his machine until it finally settled into its chest. Once this energy had done so, Shinn could feel a strange pulsation coming from his machine while his display showed an image of what looked like his Gundam combining together with Rey's. "Uh Rey? What'd you just do to my Gundam?"

"You've got the display on your screen right," Rey asked, immediately telling Shinn that he knew what would happen after that burst of energy went into the Grand Destiny.

"Yeah," Shinn nodded hesitantly.

"Then synchronize your movements with mine, and then go with it from there," Rey instructed his friend.

At this point, Shinn gave up on trying to get a straight answer, and just blasted his machine into the air until it was flying in concert with Rey's, almost like a mirror image of the other Gundam. After another second or so, Rey's Gundam suddenly began transforming until the disk on its back had split into two halves that were being held on the outsides of the now longer legs, while the rest of its upper half seemed to either retract or fold in on itself, while the Grand Destiny began shifting so that its own legs had become massive arms while the wings moved up a little to compensate for the sudden change. After lining up with one another, the two machines combined into one, giving each other the half of a machine that they were now missing, and giving rise to a whole new Gundam.

"Powerlinx Grand Destiny Gundam, complete," Rey reported from his cockpit that was now located in the newly combined machine's back. "Of course, maybe we should go with something more original like…Liberating Destiny Gundam."

"Uh Rey, how did you make this possible," Shinn interrupted, his amazement clear as day in his voice.

"I'll explain later, let's just get these guys," Rey told his friend.

"Right," Shinn nodded, and he immediately pushed forward on his controls, sending the new machine flying towards the enemy at an incredible speed that one would not have suspected it of having, given its new size. After racing around and tearing through the enemy non-stop and at an unbeatable rate, Shinn finally unleashed the new finishing move he learned from training under Domon while loudly roaring, "Grand Destiny Breaker!"

After the dust had clear from Shinn's finishing attack, Ro Co Zane could only scoff in disgust at what had just unfolded, and how humiliating a defeat they now clearly been dealt by Za Burrel and his teammates, but since he was smart enough to know when to cut his losses, he just signaled the others to retreat, and the Decepticon forces were off and running, leaving the survivors and defenders of Junkion to cheer in victory. After a minute or so, Lunamaria finally turned her attention to her boyfriend and asked, "Any particular reason you seem to be shouting out the names of all your attacks now?"

"Sorry; it's a habit I kinda picked up from the guys I met while we were gone," Shinn apologized with a sheepish look that he knew Luna could see without even seeing his face.

"Hey don't sweat it too much. You're not the only one who picked up a habit like that," Rey reminded his friend, leading Luna to voice an agreement with that statement, which was soon followed by a round of laughter from all three friends.

* * *

 **Location: Nebulous**

Like the forces on Junkion and Velocitron, the defenders of Nebulous also received some reinforcements from the recently returned Autobots and Gundam pilots, and when she saw Arcee and Smokescreen racing onto the battlefield with the Infinite Justice and Diamond Akatsuki following right behind them, Elita One could only grin at the knowledge that their return brought with them. "They're back," the sparkmate of Optimus Prime whispered in tearful relief, knowing that her statement did not just apply to the four recent arrivals.

None of the four wasted any time in getting to work, as Arcee quickly blasted through the battlefield until she was right in the thick of it, but she did not remain on her own for long, as Smokescreen suddenly came up from under the ground to fire his energon bow at the enemies that were about to try and get the drop on Arcee, knocking out two of the Hive Headmasters easily when he did, and leaving a third one for Arcee to take down. "Thanks kid," Arcee nodded to Smokescreen.

"Any time, Arcee," Smokescreen mock-saluted in reply before they both turned their attention back to the battle that was still going on.

While they were doing that, Cagalli took this moment to activate the psyco-frame that her Diamond Akatsuki had recently awakened, allowing her mental awareness to become increased in an instant while speeding up the machine's reaction time to the point where it was practically responding to her thoughts before she could even think them. This allowed her to easily give both Bruticus and Scorpnok the run around while she targeted their most vulnerable points, such as their joints and blind spots, until she finally blasted to the side so that Defensor could deliver a final blow to knock Bruticus out of the fight, forcing him to separate back into the five Combaticons. Scorpnok on the other hand, was going to need a little more of a push before he finally went down though.

Thankfully, Athrun was more than happy to provide it. "Blast Blade, it's time for us to show what you've got," the ace pilot told his new partner, and the Mini-Con excitedly beeped in reply before jumping out of the cockpit and into the air as he transformed to vehicle mode and flew around to the Infinite Justice's back while Athrun shouted the command he was waiting to hear. "Powerlinx!"

The minute that Blast Blade had connected with the machine, the Infinite Justice's Blade Cannons sprang to life, and Athrun blasted his machine forward the minute they were securely in hand. Once he was close enough, he powered up one of the blade weapons so that it was emitting a beam saber much like the ones he would use when flying while docked with a METEOR and swung at the massive Headmaster with all of his might, throwing Scorpnok off balance long enough for Athrun to fire a powerful, narrow stream of energy from the other one. This combination of attacks was what ultimately left Scorpnok weak enough for Fortress Maximus to deliver the final blow, ending the battle and sending the enemy running in full retreat, much to everyone's joy and relief.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

Even with Omega Supreme joining the battle at full strength, the scales were tipped in anyone's favor by all that much, but the thing that made a real difference in turning the tides in anyone's favor was when the Gaia and Ultra Magnus arrived on the battlefield, leaving Ratchet and Nicol to both smile widely in excitement at the sight of their friends' return. Almost instantly after they had arrived, Magnus and Waltfeld were both shouting out orders to the troops, and a vast majority of both commanders' orders, while seemingly strange at first, ended up being the very thing that allowed the Autobots to start pushing the enemy back, not little by little, but practically all at once. In fact, the orders they were receiving were so effective, that some of them had to wonder if the two commanders had somehow gained the ability to see the future while they were gone.

The truth was they were at least half right, somewhat. "You seem to have adjusted quite well when it comes to effectively using the ZERO System, Commander Waltfeld," Ultra Magnus commented as he slammed his hammer into a Terrorcon, sending it flying into another one that was just a few feet away afterwards.

"Well, I guess I just had a good deal of practice, and it helps that I had a good friend watching my back to make sure I didn't lose it like I initially did that first time," Waltfeld shrugged in nonchalance, even while he maintained his focus on keeping the system from overpowering his mind.

Seeing how much the tide had turned with the arrival of the two commanders made Cyclops snarl in disgust, and it only fired him up even more as he charged towards the two, shouting, "No! I will not lose! I will not bring Lord Galvatron another failure like those incompetent, traitorous beasts! I'll crush you all with my bear hands if I have to!"

Cyclops never got the chance to do any of that, because before he was even within arm's reach of the two, he found his path cut off by Spartan, who had his sword ready and waiting to run right through him, and run through him it did as he ended up running so that the blade would end up piercing his torso the minute he had reached him. "I told you that you would die to today, Cyclops," Spartan snarled as he slashed his sword through Cyclops', letting the Decepticon commander drop to the ground.

When Roadkill saw that his commander had been killed, he immediately gave the signal for the Decepticons to retreat, leaving the defenders of Cybertron to cheer in victory, both for the fact that they had succeeded in protecting their home and that their greatest heroes had returned to them, as evident from the fact that Ultra Magnus and Andrew Waltfeld's Gaia Gundam were both standing tall and proud as they looked out over the former battlefield side-by-side.

* * *

 **Location: Earth**

Bumblebee could not help but groan in pain as he tried to sit up once again after being on the receiving end of a very brutal beating from Galvatron and Le Creuset. Having Grimlock, Predaking, Dearka, Yzak, and Heine as backup against these madmen may have been a slight help at first, but now, it was just a struggle for each of them to survive. Even Predaking was struggling to stand, much to everyone's initial surprise, but after a moment, it did make sense that the ones who had given him life would be able to hurt him to such a degree, even if he was different from the beast he had once been not so long ago. Before he could move any further in his attempts to stand once again, he found himself being pushed back down to the ground by Galvatron's foot while the Advocate Gundam towered over him with an arm blaster ready to fire right into his face.

"It appears that your luck has finally run out, Bumblebee," Galvatron smirked. "This time, there won't be any miracles to save you when we kill you."

"And here I thought it would have been a bit more spectacular when you finally perished," Le Creuset mocked as he prepared to fire his weapon. Just as the blaster was charging up though, the sound of a truck horn reached everyone's ears, and upon turning to the source, Le Creuset found himself releasing an honest gasp of disbelief at what he saw approaching them. "It can't be! The Strike Freedom!"

Sure enough, barreling towards them as it changed out of its truck mode was the Strike Freedom Gundam, which made quick work of any other enemies that attempted to impede its advance. When Galvatron and Le Creuset turned to fire on him, Kira just activated his machine's beam shield before launching his mobile suit into the air, to reveal Optimus Prime driving into the battle right behind him, with a roar of his vehicle mode's engines. Once Kira was out of the way, Optimus immediately fired a missile barrage that bombarded the two psychos until they had finally moved a fair distance away from his allies, giving Optimus the chance to transform into robot mode and bring out the Star Saber for battle, which he immediately clashed against Galvatron's Dark Star Saber practically seconds later.

"What must I do to be rid of you, Prime," Galvatron snarled in anger as he pushed against Optimus' legendary blade.

"Far more than anything that is possible for you, Galvatron," Optimus answered as he won the struggle of strength and managed to push Galvatron back. He then swung the Star Saber around in a powerful swing, its blade glowing with blue energy as it came down on its target, and it was all Galvatron could do to be able to avoid both that swing and the ones that followed after.

Le Creuset snarled at this sudden development, and decided to take the Advocate's new artificial T-Cog for its first real test drive by transforming his dark Gundam into a massive, dark colored helicopter, allowing him to get a better angle on the two battling leaders from the air. What he did not expect was for the Strike Freedom to suddenly blast further into the air and then transform into its new jet mode before firing on the masked man that had plagued the universe with his darkness for far too long now, and the ensuing dog-fight between the two quickly proved that Kira had already become far more experienced in fighting with his Gundam's new vehicle mode than Le Creuset was at this point in time. Not only that, but the Strike Freedom's jet mode was also held a very noticeable advantage when it came to pure speed in an aerial battle, so he was able to make quick work of knocking Le Creuset out of the air.

Somehow, Le Creuset was able to regain control of his machine before he hit the ground, but not before the Strike Freedom had flown up to him and returned to Gundam mode so that Kira could capture the Advocate Gundam in its grasp, and then say a simple sentence that he had often heard Optimus say when addressing some of his foes before. "Rau Le Creuset…be gone!"

With that simple declaration, the Strike Freedom immediately spun around a few times before throwing the Advocate Gundam with all of its might, sending both the machine and its pilot flying right into Galvatron just as he was jumping up to bring down a powerful strike on Optimus from above. Upon their collision, the two tyrants were sent tumbling across the ground, until Galvatron managed to push Rau's Gundam off of him and then take to the skies in his own jet mode, thinking he could knock Kira out of the air more effectively. He had not counted on Optimus assuming his own, new bomber jet mode and he was quick to start firing on Galvatron until the Decepticon warlord was blasted out of the sky once again.

With his enemy grounded once again, Optimus transformed into robot mode, and hovered in the air alongside the Strike Freedom, right above the two psychopaths as a show of how much stronger they had become and how easily they had bested the two villains, and he said, "Leave now, Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset. Neither one of you are welcome here, and the same goes for your forces and the monsters that you have created."

The two heralds of Unicron just snarled at the two in disgust before they looked over the battlefield to see that the Autobot forces in the immediate area were easily pushing their own warriors back now, having seen that their leaders had returned at last and easily bested the two of them, and that served to enrage them even more. They likely would have done something to retaliate had they not received a telepathic message from their master at that moment. **_"Leave them to this victory, my heralds,"_** Unicron commanded. **_"In the end, it will not matter. They will all burn soon enough."_**

Though they did not like it, the two leaders signaled their forces to pull back in full retreat, and they were soon racing away into the sky and the Space Bridge portal that would lead them back to whatever sanctuary that they had in their base. Any other time, the heroes of Earth and Cybertron would likely have been more concerned over this sudden withdraw and a fear that the worst was still yet to come, but at that moment, none of that mattered to anyone. All that anyone cared about at that moment, was that the universe now had the heroes it had lost to other corners of reality had returned, stronger than they had been before, and seeing those same heroes standing strong and proud at the head of whatever battle that had just been won was all the reason anyone needed to believe that there was a much more certain hope of ending whatever plot the Chaos Bringer had in store for them.

* * *

 ** _AN: Yeah this chapter was really all over the place, huh? In all honesty, I kinda wanted that to be the point, because it would allow you all to see just how insane things had become in the absence of the misplaced sixteen heroes, right up until the triumphant return of those heroes, as the chapter title would suggest._**

 ** _Also, yeah, of course I was going to have Rey gain the ability to grant a combination spark to someone, but it will only be to certain pilots and members of the Gundam Team, so don't expect anymore combinations between Autobots and Gundam pilots. And yes, it was only natural that Shinn be the first one to receive a combination spark. You'll find out more on who else will get one in the next chapter._**

 ** _Speaking of new abilities that got a chance to show off, which is pretty much all of them, don't think that just because the bad guys know about them now it will mean that they can counter those abilities, because they still don't know the full extent of these new powers that the Gundam Team and Autobots had gained, and while we're on the subject, of course Le Creuset's Gundam would gain the ability to transform into a vehicle mode. It is equipped with it's own artificial T-Cog now, so it wouldn't make sense to do otherwise. If you're wondering why I chose a helicopter for the Advocate Gundam's vehicle mode, blame it on the fact that Megatron had such a vehicle mode in Transformers Animated, and I couldn't really think of anything better for the thing to change into._**

 ** _Now, about the next chapter, don't think that I'll be going right into the final battle, because that won't start for a couple more chapters._**

 ** _Dearka: How many chapters are left in this thing anyway? I think we all want to know at least that._**

 ** _AN: Uh, let me think...counting the next chapter that will come immediately after this one...I'd say that there's at least...four chapters left in this story, minimum, and that's counting the epilogue that you know that this story will have, like pretty much every other story I've written has had. So that should give you all an idea on just how close we are to bringing this adventure to a close at last._**

 ** _Arcee: Hard to believe that this may be the end for all of us working together._**

 ** _Bumblebee: Why don't we save that kind of talk for when we're a bit closer to the last chapter, okay Arcee?_**

 ** _Optimus: Agreed, we are not done just yet, so it would be better for us to not start thinking like we already are._**

 ** _AN: Well said, Optimus. Now, I think we've kept the readers long enough with the sad, emotional stuff. Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _After a brief moment to relax and let everyone become acquainted with the new abilities that the sixteen recently returned Gundam pilots and Autobots had acquired in their travels to other universes, the heroes of Earth and Cybertron begin making plans on how to track down the now fully revived Unicron so that they may determine what his next move could be. During this time, the New Iacon Base receives an encoded distress signal that none of them would have expected one from, leading to a shocking discovery that may change everything in their struggle so that they have even more of a fighting chance than before. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 30: Silver Linings** ** _. Discover a new key to victory in the most unexpected of places, Autobots and Gundam Team!_**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	30. Silver Linings

_**AN: Hey guys, we're back with more of Chaos Hunters, and that makes us another chapter closer to the end of the adventure in the trilogy, and this time, we're giving you something you may not have expected at all. I won't bore you with the details though, so I'll just let you guys get a move on with things. Let's roll out!**_

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 30: Silver Linings**

With the most recent battles ended, the defenders of the universe were quick to return to Earth so that they could all give a proper welcome back to their recently returned friends, and not a single one of them was opposed to any of it. Each and every single one of the sixteen heroes were all met with joyous hugs, high-fives, pats on the back, and even kisses in some instances, the most notable of the last one being among Elita and Optimus, Kira and Lacus, Murrue and Mu, and pretty much every other pair of lovers or couples that were involved in the ordeal. The excitement of this welcome back party did not end with just the greetings, but instead increased tenfold as each of the eight pairs enlightened everyone with the stories of their adventures in the other universes, and no one seemed like they were likely to tire of hearing about these tales of wonder and excitement any time soon, because none of the sixteen had held anything back on what they had encountered. From the alternate versions of good friends to the bizarre circumstances of the worlds they lived in, from the incredible powers and abilities that the people of these other worlds possessed to the histories that were so similar yet so different from their own, and even all the smallest of things that made each of these worlds seem like an entirely different existence even without being an alternate universe, it had all proven to be the most exciting of things for all of them to hear about.

No one was that surprised to hear about the other universes with Transformers in them, but they were still amazed to hear about how different everyone was in each one. The one thing that they found to enjoy the most was hearing about how the Optimus Prime in each of these other universes compared to the one that they all knew, and for the most part, they all found it to be rather entertaining. When Athrun mentioned that the Optimus he met was actually able to make a good joke and even made witty remarks, no one was able to keep themselves from making fun of the Autobot leader in response, since he did not have much of a sense of humor in general. Another thing that they were all happy to hear was that a lot of Autobots they knew seemed to exist in other universes, even though they were not always the exact same Autobots that they had met up until now, be since a few years ago or just recently. In the end, it was Wheeljack and Mu who surprised everyone the most when they had told them of how they met another Ultra Magnus that was vastly different from the strict, by-the-book Autobot that they had all come to know, and everyone got a small laugh out of how Wheeljack had told them that he still kind of wished that they could have traded that world's Ultra Magnus for theirs.

In comparison, the fact that other universes with Gundams actually came as a bit more of a shock to everyone, and ended up being the central most topic of conversation for the first time that they all discussed the matter of the group's interdimensional adventures. To hear of the various different worlds where young men and women would actually become Gundam pilots so that they could fight for a cause that they believed in that was similar to the one that they had believed in for so long was actually something of a comfort to them, but it was the vast differences about each of these pilots of other worlds and their histories that really grabbed their attention the most. Waltfeld's tales ended up seeming like the most serious out of all of them, even though he told them in his usual, laid back manner, but it was still nothing in comparison to when Cagalli told them all about how she had actually encountered alternate versions of Banagher and Audrey in the one she had ended up with as they started to take on a mission that could have the potential to change the history of their world as they knew it. The idea that Banagher had ended up in a position similar to the one Kira had been in when he first boarded the Strike, even in another lifetime, was actually rather shocking for them all, but after seeing him fight in the recent battle, and knowing both him and Audrey for as long as they had, they could not deny that they were able to see how such a thing was possible. Of course, none of that compared to when Shinn and Bulkhead told them about the Future Century, and about how Shinn learned to become a better warrior from Domon and the other Gundam Fighters, but that was mostly because of the fact that Bulkhead had showed them all the recording he made of Shinn and Domon performing their little greeting dance, and Shinn's quick rush to deliver some payback to the large Wrecker in the Grand Destiny only ended up increasing everyone's laughter in response to the whole thing.

The thing that had everyone most surprised though, was the tales that Optimus and Kira had for them. To think that in another lifetime, the Autobots were working side-by-side with Gundam pilots to keep the galaxy safe was most definitely something that was both shocking and comforting at the same time. What really surprised them was how there were so many similarities it had to their universe, not just in terms of Transformers, but in terms of the people that Kira and Optimus had met. It really came as a shock to Murrue to hear about how similar she was in comparison to Sumeragi Lee Noriega, and even more so to Feldt and Lacus that there was another person that was extremely similar to them in terms of appearance and yet was still different in so many ways, but out of everything that they heard from Kira and Optimus about this other world, there was one thing that truly stood out for them. It may not have been exactly like their universe, but the idea that the two different sets of heroes had ended up coming together for a similar cause, if not the same one, was more than enough to reassure everyone that some things were still possible even in another life.

While all these stories were fun for everyone to hear again and again, the one thing that stood out was the fact that just about all of the heroes that had disappeared into other universes had now come back with new abilities and powers that they did not possess before, and none of them hesitated to give a full rundown of how those abilities worked once the excitement from the parties and story-telling had finally died down enough. There was really not that much for them to cover in that regard though, aside from Kira informing everyone that it would not be a good idea for any of the other Transformer Gundam pilots to attempt making their Gundams into triple changers like he had unless they were willing to risk a total system overload, and one other detail that was revealed by Rey in reference to the Liberator Gundam's new ability to grant someone a combination spark. After Rey explained that he believed it was possible to grant a combination spark to some of the others, the group had immediately assembled the Transformer Gundams together along with as many groups of Autobots that worked well together as a team to see if it would work. In the end though, only the Infinite Justice and the Strike Freedom were granted combination sparks, leaving everyone to wonder just what else was necessary for Rey to be able to grant one to someone else. They figured that it was because Rey had always known Athrun and Kira to be a strong team when they fought together, much like the blonde and Shinn were, and that somehow the combination spark responded to what Rey believed regarding his fellow pilots and their compatibility with one another, or any of those who already possessed a combination spark, but that theory was immediately dismissed when Rey pointed out the fact that he was well aware of how strong a team many of the other members of the team were, so that could not have been the reason. Although this mystery had left them all a little bewildered, none of them were curious enough to really look into that much, since they had other, more pressing matters of concern that needed to be addressed.

At that moment though, two people in the New Iacon Base were not all that focused on those concerns, but instead, on a small game that they had begun between the two of them. "Okay, how about the toughest mission you've ever been on," Miriallia asked her boyfriend.

"Heaven's Base," Dearka immediately answered, only to yelp in mock pain when the girl playfully slapped his arm.

"No fair, we weren't working together at that time," Miriallia whined.

"Fine, sorry. I've just gotten used to saying that whenever people ask me what my toughest mission was," Dearka conceded as he offered up an acceptable excuse. "Hmm, let's see…I'd probably say the second major offensive the 'Cons threw at us in this little war. The one that happened while some of the team were off at Quintessa and before we found out Unicron was inside Earth's core."

"Really? But from what I heard, a lot of the enemies you fought were Terrorcons that just ran right up to you," Miriallia commented in confusion.

"You ever notice how most of the machines I pilot tend to carry a lot of long-range weaponry? I'm not exactly the best at close-combat," Dearka reminded the girl.

"Well, you always did have a hard time with things when it came to getting close," Miriallia teased.

"I wouldn't say always," Dearka argued. "I mean…I must be doing something right if you're still around."

Miriallia could not have stopped either the smile or the blush that she developed after the blonde said that, so she quickly decided to move on to a different topic. "How about…worst thing that we ever fought, and the Predacons don't count."

"Do you mean as in Predaking and his guys or the drones," Dearka asked for clarification.

"Both," Miriallia quickly replied.

That made Dearka stop and think for a minute before he finally said, "I'd have to say the Combaticons, especially after they combined into Bruticus."

"Nice," Miriallia nodded in approval. "I'm going to go with the Insecticons."

"But we've never really fought against Hardshell, Kickback, or Sharpshot any of the times that they were out there," Dearka pointed out, knowing full well that most of the time it was someone else fighting those three while he just provided covering fire and Miriallia did her job on the ship she was serving aboard.

"No, not them; the drones. They look like large spiders and they scuttle right towards you," Miriallia clarified.

"I thought you liked it when things got close," Dearka smirked.

"Not when its spiders, especially ones that are that big," Miriallia shivered in response.

"And what about when it's me? Is it a good thing then," Dearka questioned, his smirk still present but now softening up a bit when he asked.

Miriallia did not even attempt to hide the blush that was now adorning her cheeks, or the smile on her face before she and the Gundam pilot started to lean in towards each other, intending to close the gap between them. Just when they could feel each other's breath on their faces though, someone behind them suddenly coughed and said, "Sorry to interrupt the moment you two are having, but I think there's something important you'll both want to hear about."

The two immediately jumped apart, both sporting brilliant blushes that could rival the brightest red apple and turned to see Kira standing in the doorway with a barely suppressed smirk on his face, no doubt forming due to the reactions the two had at his sudden entrance. After shaking his slight embarrassment over being caught like this out, Dearka leveled a look at his commanding officer and asked, "How long have you been standing there?"

"I actually just came in from the meeting with the others, and I figured everyone would want to hear about one of the things we had been discussing," Kira reassured the blonde. He may have been amused at how the two had reacted to his interruption, but he was not willing to stand there and watch as they started making out with each other, hence the reason why he had coughed.

"I'll let you two big soldiers talk then," Miriallia said as she stood up to leave, only for Kira to wave for her to stop in her departure.

"This is something you should hear too, Mir," Kira informed his friend. "It's actually about the one, overlying issue that we're all facing at the moment."

Dearka's face instantly fell into a serious frown that most would consider out of character for him under normal circumstances, but after hearing what Kira said, he knew just what he had been referring to, and this was not normal circumstances. "Unicron's resurrection."

"Exactly," Kira nodded. "At this point there's very little doubt that Galvatron and Le Creuset have successfully resurrected him, and now, it's not just necessary for us to track down Unicron's location. It's the top priority if there's to be any chance of the universe surviving."

"Well, why can't Optimus just finish decoding the information in the Iacon Data Archives," Miriallia asked. "I mean, didn't he say that the location of Unicron's body was in there?"

"Yeah, but that's just the location of where his body was before he was brought back to life, so that information is useless now," Kira explained.

"To put it simply, it would be like going to look for a treasure that someone else has found in the place where it was originally buried," Dearka clarified. "There would be no point."

"So we just have to figure out when he went after he finally got his big wake-up call," Miriallia finished, hoping that she was understanding all of this right.

"Pretty much," Kira nodded.

"Well I'd hate to break it to you guys, but even if Unicron is as big as we think he is, finding him out in the vast, _endless_ reaches of space is still going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. How the hell are we supposed to do that," Dearka practically demanded.

"Miss Erica, Fixit, Feldt, and Sai are actually working on that right now with Wheeljack," Kira revealed. "They're trying to create a scanning system to locate Unicron by using the very thing that's been giving us trouble since this whole mess started."

Neither of the two could figure out what Kira meant by that, until it suddenly clicked for Dearka when he thought back to what it was that had really triggered this madness. "They're going to be looking for Dark Energon?! Why would we want to go looking for the very thing that everyone considers to be the Autobots and our Gundams' kryptonite? So that the bad guys can grab some to use on us?"

"No, and besides, why would the 'Cons go looking for Dark Energon when they can just get some from right from its source," Kira asked in response. When Dearka and Miriallia just shot him confused looks, he immediately went into a full explanation on why they were searching for Dark Energon. "Think about it for a minute. Dark Energon is considered to be the blood of Unicron, so if that's not just a fancy nickname, then Unicron is likely not just the original source of it, but the largest source of the substance in the entire universe. So if we can find a Dark Energon source that's larger than any of the others…"

"Then there's a good chance that will be where Unicron is, or where he has been, and if we use that scanner just right, we can also figure out what his first target is going to be," Miriallia finished.

"Okay, I'll admit it: that's a smart plan, but what're we supposed to do until that scanner's up and running and they've used it to find the guy," Dearka asked. "We can't just sit here and do nothing."

"We're not, at least not all of us," Kira revealed. "Right now, this is the calm before the storm, and we need to take this time to rebuild our defenses and tend to the wounded from that last attack, and not just on Earth and Cybertron, but on every world that the 'Cons had targeted. You can't deny that we took some heavy losses during that last battle just on Earth, and since Cybertron may have been caught in the worst of all the battles, it's going to take some time before everyone there is back to full fighting strength, including our newly reawakened, big friend."

"Have I mentioned how jealous I am that Nicol helped to revive Omega Supreme," Dearka asked, his tone showing that he was joking. He then became serious again and asked, "Speaking of which, how's the Nero Blitz?"

"Banagher says that the only problem with it at the moment is that it ran its energon crystals completely dry, even with the Energon Reactor Core, so all they really need to do is replace those crystals with new, fresh ones and the thing will be good as new."

"And what about the other worlds," Miriallia asked.

"Nebulous got hit pretty hard, which isn't surprising considering that there were four titans battling it out there, but Cerebros insisted that he and his people would be able to handle it on their own," Kira replied as a start to a quick briefing on the other worlds' status. "Velocitron was also hit really hard, mostly because a good majority of their attackers were flyers and they don't really have that many flyers of their own, not counting the guys that we had sent to help, but the Aerialbots and the _Minerva_ crew are doing everything they can to help out there, which includes Shinn, Rey, and Luna. If anything, I'd say Junkion is doing the best out of all of us, since they're practically back to their usual level of defensive strength already. Just goes to show that they're a lot more than just garbage collectors and salesmen."

"What about the Star Seekers," Dearka asked, having noticed that Kira did not say anything about the pirates.

Kira let out a small sigh before he finally said, "Their ship took some pretty serious hits, but Thundertron insisted that they would be able to manage before they took off. I get the feeling we shouldn't really count on them coming to help us again when we finally go out for the final face-off with Unicron."

As much as Dearka and Miriallia wanted to argue with that sentiment, they knew that Kira was right. Even if Thundertron did know that there was not likely a chance that he and his crew would survive Unicron's wrath, they would not likely come to fight in what promised to be the final battle with them out of a fear for their own safety. Still, that did not keep Dearka from getting too far off from their original topic, as he quickly asked, "So basically, while everyone else is doing all that they can to help with restoring our defensive strength for when the actual devil of the Transformers himself arrives, the rest of us just have to sit around and twiddle our thumbs?"

"Well you can make sure that your machine's resupplied, and spend time with people you care about if you really think that we won't survive and you may not see them again afterwards, but aside from that, there's really not all that much we can do, Dearka," Kira confirmed with a small nod. He did not want to admit it, but Kira was just as annoyed by the fact that they could not really do anything to prepare for the storm that was coming right then as Dearka was, but he knew that getting too frustrated about it would serve no purpose at all. Of course, that did not mean he was secretly hoping that something would come up that could help keep their minds off of the tension that was slowly building from not knowing where the Chaos Bringer was or what his next move would be now that he was awake.

That wish was soon granted when the base's alarms suddenly started going off, and the three heard Bumblebee's voice over the intercom asking for everyone in the base that was available to report to the control room at once, and the three were quickly racing to that very location. Upon arriving, they quickly spotted Athrun, Waltfeld, Yzak, and Shiho on the raised platform along with Natarle and Fixit, while Bumblebee, Optimus, Elita, Hound, Drift, Strongarm, and Smokescreen stood around the platform and the main computer, which Fixit was furiously typing away at. "What's going on, Bumblebee," Kira asked the minute he was in the room while continuing to make his way over to the platform with the others.

"We're picking up a strange distress signal on our comm. channels," the Earth Division leader revealed.

"Strange how," Yzak inquired.

"It's not an Autobot signal, and it's also not one from any of the other worlds our allies are currently on," Fixit clarified as he continued working.

"Is it the Star Seekers," Shiho asked, not noticing that some of her fellow pilots and a few Autobots were silently praying that was not the case.

"No, if this was them, then Fixit wouldn't be struggling to clean up the communication. We'd already be hearing Thundertron's obnoxious voice by now," Hound denied.

"Here's the real clincher though, the signal is on a frequency similar to the one we received back when Optimus was reverted to his Pre-Prime state and being held on the Decepticon Base on Chaar," Smokescreen revealed.

"You mean the one that had detailed schematics on the base as well as a list of major locations in the base and where Optimus could have been," Dearka asked.

"Exactly," Bumblebee nodded. "Whoever this is could be the same person that had contacted us before, but we won't know anything for sure until Fixit has finished cleaning up the transmission."

"Which I have just finished doing," Fixit announced not even two seconds after Bumblebee had finished speaking. "It's nothing perfect, but it is at the point where it should be just enough for us to get a better idea on what the message says and who is on the other end of it. Whenever you're ready, sir."

A simple nod from both Optimus and Bumblebee was all the response needed before Fixit tapped a control at his console, and everyone was soon listening to a rather garbled transmission, but all the same, it was still audible enough for them to make out who was speaking and some of what they were saying. _"Autobot Base, can you hear…This is Quicksilver. My team and I are being attacked by…have vital information and resources…help you in…trace this transmission back to source for…Please send reinforce…repeat, we are under attack by Decep…send any…"_

When the message finally cut out completely, everyone was just staring in surprise at the monitor, none of them truly able to believe what they had just heard. Quicksilver, Starscream's loyal apprentice and one of their toughest enemies was actually trying to call them for help? And from the sound of the message, it was because he and a team of his was being attacked by Decepticons? At least that's what they assumed from the last part of the message that they had heard, but still, some of them were a little skeptical about going to help someone who is supposed to be an enemy. If anything, this would ultimately serve in their favor, since one of the two groups could take the other out, and if it was in a remote location that would not cause any serious harm to any inhabited worlds or worlds that they had been to, then there was really no real reason to interfere. Still, the guy had gone out of his way to ask for their help, and apparently, it sounded like he had something important for them that he indicated would be beneficial somehow. In the end, it all boiled down to a question of whether or not they could trust him.

That question was ultimately answered when Smokescreen spoke up. "We have to help," the young Autobot said, drawing astonished looks from everyone as a result. Seeing these looks of surprise led Smokescreen to let out a small sigh before he revealed, "Look, Quicksilver and I were once best friends back when we were in Autobot Academy together, until he started becoming a strong believer in the stuff Megatron had been saying and I fell in with the group that sided with Optimus and Sentinel. But that aside, he wouldn't do something like this if he wasn't being completely honest in what he was saying. He may be a Decepticon, but he's still a good 'Bot who fights for what he believes in, even when no one else does. In fact, he mainly joined the 'Cons because he blamed everything that had happened on the previous Primes who created the caste system. If he's really making the effort to ask us for help, then shouldn't we at least try to see if we can help, if for no other reason than to see if he's willing to change sides?"

Everyone seemed to consider Smokescreen's words for a minute, until Natarle spoke up and said, "Even we weren't to take all of that into account, the fact is that if they do have something that could help us, be it information or resources, then we can't really afford to just ignore that right now, can we?"

No one said anything in disagreement with that, and Waltfeld took that as his cue to speak up. "I agree with both of these two," the Desert Tiger stated. Everyone looked at him for clarification when he did not give his reasons right away, and after a minute he said, "When I first activated the ZERO System, I saw…visions of our future, both good and bad, and a large number of the better ones that resulted in ending in our favor only come about if we respond to this distress call. Trust me, I know we shouldn't be relying on dreams to make our final decisions on these things, but if you all had seen what I did, then you would be insisting on doing this too."

While Waltfeld's reasoning may have seemed a little strange had they not been informed of what the Gaia's ZERO System could do, they could all see how shaken up he was when he mentioned those visions he had seen, so in the end, it seemed that this was what made the final decision for everyone. "Autobots, Gundam pilots, prepare to roll out," Optimus ordered. "Elita, Natarle, ready the _Omega III_ and the _Seraphim_ for immediate launch. We'll meet you at those ships once both of our groups are ready for action."

"Sir, is it really wise to call in anyone for this mission," Strongarm asked. "Every one of our forces, both Autobot and otherwise, are currently assisting in repairs and recovery of the defenses of all of our allied worlds. We can't really afford to bring any of them in right now."

"That's why we're going to have to make do with who we have right here at this moment," Kira answered for Optimus. "Mister Waltfeld, Yzak, Dearka, Athrun, and Shiho, make sure your machines are ready for action, and I'll see you at the _Seraphim_."

The gathered group instantly nodded in reply and they were all soon racing away to handle the preparations that they needed to take care of, while Optimus turned to the Mini-Con member of the Earth Division. Fixit, once you are done here, report to the research center that the others who are working on the Dark Energon Scanner are currently posted so that you can help them in their efforts. We must locate Unicron and discover where he is heading as quickly as possible if we want to end his terror."

"Understood sir," Fixit saluted, and with that, the Mini-Con quickly went to work with tracking the transmission they had just received back to its source, and he ended up finishing said job by the time the Gundam Team had returned ready for action, leaving only one thing left to say, and surprisingly, Optimus allowed Kira to be the one to say it.

"Autobots, Gundam pilots, burst on and roll out," the Ultimate Coordinator declared, and seconds later, the group had disappeared through the Ground Bridge that led to the ships they would be flying aboard to their destination.

* * *

It took a few minutes even by Space Bridge for the team to reach the origin point of Quicksilver's transmission, but in the end, they were still able to reach the place the signal had come from, and the _Seraphim_ and the _Omega III_ were soon preparing to descend into the atmosphere of the planet that the transmission seemed to be coming from. The only question at this point was just where in the galaxy they were. This was a question that Natarle immediately posed to Miriallia, who was already looking over the star charts that the Autobots had provided them, but unfortunately, the girl could only report one thing that would not really be all that encouraging. "Sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid that this planet isn't listed anywhere in the Cybertronian database or even on any of the Autobots' star charts."

"Are you sure about that," Natarle asked, hoping that Miriallia might have missed something for once in her search.

"I'm positive," Miriallia nodded.

"She's right. I've double-checked everything, and then checked again, and there's not even one mention of a world at these coordinates until now," Flay then spoke up from her position in the CIC.

Natarle gritted her teeth at this news, because despite the rather calm appearance of the large, blue planet before them that seemed rather similar to Earth, there was absolutely no way of knowing what sort of environmental hazards, creatures, or other form of dangers could be waiting for them down there aside from the Decepticons. At the same time, she knew that they could not just linger up in space forever, especially if they wanted to help Quicksilver and his team, but without knowing anything about this planet, they had no way of knowing if they would even be able to breathe in its atmosphere. In the end, it made very little difference, because Optimus and the other Autobots were already getting ahead of them in a descent to the planet below, and they could not just sit back and let their friends fight this on their own. "All hands, prepare to descend to the planet. Be ready for anything as we do so," Natarle ordered.

Everyone had immediately confirmed her orders a minute later, and the two ships were soon flying in the atmosphere of the planet. After taking a few quick scans of the area, they were able to locate a facility that had clearly been set up by the Decepticons at some point in the past, and just outside the facility, a rather one-sided battle was taking place. After zooming in on the facility, everyone could see that a horde of Insecticons and Vehicons were indeed attacking a small defense group that consisted of Quicksilver, Thundercracker, Sky Warp, and a few Vehicons that were colored silver and grey as opposed to the usual black and purple of the typical Decepticon troops. Now that they were able to see the 'Cons apparently fighting amongst themselves like this, everyone of the Autobots and humans that had come here could hardly believe their eyes, but that did not stop them from doing what they had come there to do, and so, they instantly swooped in and began getting to work.

The first strike came from a barrage of Hell Darts and Sledgehammer missiles from the _Seraphim_ , followed by a barrage of missiles from the _Omega III_ , which ultimately served their purpose of scattering the attacking 'Cons and giving Quicksilver and his team a moment to catch their breath and reload as they needed. With the enemy sufficiently cleared away, Optimus instantly led a strike team from the _Omega III_ consisting of Elita, Strongarm, Hound, Drift, and Smokescreen, while Kira launched in the Strike Freedom with the Infinite Justice, the Blu Duel, Verde Buster, Rosso Aegis, and Gaia following right behind him. Almost instantly after these twelve had hit the ground or blasted through the air, they opened up a barrage of their own on their enemy, be it through long-range attacks or close-combat, and they did not stop until there were not any enemy units left to fight back. It may have been a quick and easy battle, but right now, their priority was not to fight any enemies; they were here to help save people that had called for help. As such, they all immediately moved over to where Quicksilver and his teammates were lying on the ground trying to make repairs once they were sure that the enemy had been dealt with for the moment.

The minute his optics had fallen on Quicksilver, Smokescreen could not help but let out a small gasp of horror, because to say that the fast moving triple-changer was seriously banged up after all that would be putting it mildly. There were all kinds of different dents and scratches in his armor, energon burns on his back and arms, and from the appearance of his leg, one would have been surprised that Quicksilver could so much as stand, let alone fight, and there was only one way someone could gain such injuries: by fighting to defend or obtain something so desperately that they did not even care what happened to them so long as they succeeded. Thundercracker and Sky Warp were also banged up pretty badly, but they looked like they had only received a few cuts and bruises in comparison to their brother's former apprentice, and this was obviously just as evident to them as it was to the Autobots and humans since they were putting a lot of their attention into trying to fix up the poor guy.

"Just hold still, will you," Sky Warp demanded. "If we don't at least do a patch job on you, it may not matter if we get you to either Knockout or Headcase for proper treatment."

"I told you, I'm…urgh, I'm fine," Quicksilver tried to protest, very poorly one might add since he had to grip one side of his body when he had grunted in pain. "You just focus on getting our defenses back up to full strength and tending to our other troops."

"You're most certainly _not_ fine! Now sit your aft still and let us patch you up," Thundercracker snapped.

"It would be wise of you to listen to your colleagues, Quicksilver. They are merely trying to ensure that you do not cease functioning before they can bring you to a proper medical specialist," Optimus advised as he made the group's presence known.

"Lucky for you, I'm actually a doctor," Elita pointed out as she readied an Energon Repair Ray. "You two, move aside. I'll take over," she then ordered the Seeker Siblings.

Surprisingly, neither Thundercracker or Sky Warp argued and just did as Elita had asked, letting her properly focus her ray on the young triple-changer. "Thank you," Quicksilver muttered. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually glad to see you and your team, Optimus Prime. I guess that means you received my distress call."

"Yeah we did, old pal," Smokescreen confirmed as he stepped forward to where Quicksilver could properly see him. Quicksilver smiled a little at seeing his old classmate and hearing him address him with such familiarity, but he quickly frowned a little again when Smokescreen asked, "More importantly, what in the name of Primus happened to you, and why were you guys fighting against your fellow Decepticons in the first place?"

"They are _not_ our fellow Decepticons," Quicksilver snarled. "They stopped being our comrades the minute that most of them just stood back and did nothing after Galvatron killed Starscream."

"Say what," Yzak exclaimed in surprise, with similar exclamations of shock following from the other Gundam pilots and Autobots.

Quicksilver then went on to explain everything as Elita continued to repair him, about how he had found the Requiem Blaster and tried to use it during the battle at the Malestrom Belt to take out Optimus and Galvatron under Starscream's orders, only for it to fail as the rift that had sucked some of the Autobots and Gundam pilots into other dimensions had opened, and how in the aftermath, Starscream took the fall for said action and ended up being killed by Galvatron as a result, before his lifeless body was thrown into the rift just before it closed. Everyone was, naturally, infuriated by the fact that Quicksilver and Starscream were the ones responsible for some of their allies being thrown into other dimensions, but when they heard about what had happened to Starscream, they could not find it in their hearts to hold even the smallest of grudges against him for that, especially after Quicksilver explained that Starscream had taken that fall to protect both him and all other Decepticons who had been following the oldest Seeker Sibling in a secret rebellion against Galvatron and Le Creuset.

Still, that left just one question. "What happened after that," Shiho asked while Elita finally finished her quick repairs to Quicksilver's heavily damaged form.

Quicksilver slowly stood up with a bit of assistance from Thundercracker, as to ensure he did not hurt himself in doing so, and then went on to say, "I swore that I would avenge my master by finishing the mission he had started: ending Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset, along with their false reign. Those two have completely tainted everything that the Decepticons were meant to have stood for when they first formed, or at least what I had thought they had stood for when I joined them, and even if I have to fight them alone, I won't stop until they are destroyed."

"Thankfully, he's not alone," Sky Warp stated as he jumped in to take over in the story. "Shortly after Galvatron had killed our brother, Thundercracker and I joined up with the rest of Starscream's followers and we all left the Decepticons to come here. We made sure that Galvatron and Le Creuset had received our…resignations when we left by taking a large stock of energon with us and blowing up a good number of the base's weapons vaults. I'm just sorry we didn't manage to blow up any of Shockwave's labs as well."

"Thankfully, we did end up destroying the ones that our group's scientists had been working in so that the mad scientist wouldn't know what they had discovered before we left," Thundercracker added. "And we then came here to hide out. We had discovered this planet after our defeat in what you humans call the First Bloody Valentine War, and Starscream secretly started building the base here soon afterwards in case he needed somewhere to hide out if he was ever chased out of his position of leadership in some way. Big Bro may have been overconfident and cocky at times, but he was definitely not an idiot…well, not a complete one anyway."

"And who else is there in this group besides you three," Athrun asked. Knowing just what kind of numbers that these guys had going for them could end up proving to be a deciding factor in whether or not they would be of much help in stopping Galvatron and Le Creuset's plans.

"Counting the three of us, there's about eight major soldiers and at least a handful of the Vehicons who were loyal to Starscream, most of which are flyers," Quicksilver revealed. "The other five leaders being Knockout, Banshee, Roadkill, Roadhog, and Headcase."

"But I just saw Roadkill fighting for Galvatron's team on Cybertron the other day," Waltfeld protested. "How can he be with you guys?"

"He's working for us as a deep-cover spy," Quicksilver explained. "We couldn't really be all that effective in staying clear of the Decepticons until now if we didn't at least have something of a heads-up about when they were about to catch onto us, now could we?"

"If that is the case, then could we get in touch with him to see if he knows where Unicron currently is, or where he's heading," Strongarm asked.

"No. The communicator we gave him is heavily encrypted so that it only allows him to contact us. We set it up that way so that if he was ever captured and they discovered the device they would not be able to get an accurate reading on our location," Sky Warp explained.

It did make sense to the team in a way, but that still meant that Roadkill was taking a huge risk in staying with the Decepticons. At that point though, Yzak took note of another matter that the two Seeker brothers had not mentioned. "What about Slipstream? Is she here too?"

Both Seekers scowled at the mention of their sister, with only Thundercracker explaining the reason for such a response. "Slipstream was always more loyal to Galvatron than Starscream, or really any leader that wasn't our brother. She may have been upset about what happened to him, but afterwards, she ended up just saying that Starscream got what he deserved, so don't kid yourself into thinking that she'll be lending us a hand anytime soon."

At that point, Yzak, Athrun, and Dearka had joined the Seeker brothers in their scowling. Having worked with Slipstream in the past, they all knew full well about how much she disliked her older brother, but to hear that it was to this extent was just low even for the worst of Decepticons. It honestly made them believe that she and Galvatron deserved each other. Ill thoughts about terrible siblings aside, there was still a few other matters that needed to be addressed. "So if you guys aren't Decepticons anymore, then what should we call you," Hound asked. "Seriously, tell me you guys came up with a name for yourselves, because Ex-Cons or True Decepticons just doesn't sound right at all."

Quicksilver's face was quickly adorned with a proud smile as he replied, "Since we have great strength despite our small numbers in comparison to our enemy, you can call us the Ultracons."

Everyone stared at the three for a minute before they ended up giving a few nods of approval at the new name. The reasoning behind it was rather sound after all, and it did have a certain ring to it, and now, all that was left was the big question that the heroes of Earth and Cybertron had been wondering since they first heard Quicksilver's distress call. "You said you had something here that could help us, and somehow, I get the feeling that you weren't just referring to your group," Kira commented from where he was in the Strike Freedom.

"You would assume correctly, Kira Yamato," Quicksilver nodded. "But, I don't think we should be discussing this particular matter out in the open. As Starscream would often remind me before his demise, you never know when Soundwave or his Mini-Cons might be watching and listening in, especially since it seems that Galvatron and Le Creuset have finally discovered our location. Besides, this is something you all would have to see for yourselves in order to believe it."

None of the team were sure what to make of that, but they all ultimately nodded to one another to show that they all agreed that it was likely worth the risk and then followed Quicksilver and his fellow Decepticon-deserters into their base. Before that though, Optimus asked Bumblebee to bring the _Omega III_ into a defensive position of the base along with the _Seraphim_ in case the Decepticons sent reinforcements, because he knew that even if they had come in late and at a point where the Decepticon forces had been worn down a little, the battle had still been far too easily won for their enemies to have been the main attack force.

* * *

"Hey, Big O, good to see you again! How're you doing since you got your memories back? No really, how are you doing, because I've heard that kind of thing can sometimes give someone some sporadic, near processor overload," Knockout exclaimed the minute that the group had entered the lab.

"Your concern is noted and appreciated, Knockout, but I am functioning quite well," Optimus reassured.

"Well, that's good to hear," Knockout nodded, though it was a bit nervously. He was still a bit concerned about whether or not Optimus was still upset about having his Autobot sigil changed into a Decepticon one, especially since Knockout was the one who had modified it. He quickly decided to put off bringing it up for now, if not forever, and turned to his old, human teammates from when he was first on Earth and said, "Athrun, Dearka, Yzak, you guys are looking good."

"Yeah, good to see you too, Knockout," Dearka nodded in return along with his friends. If they were being honest, they always did like Knockout best out of all the Decepticons that they had previously had to work with. "Still as touchy about your finish as before?"

"I'm not touch about my finish! I'm just…sensitive to all the hard work that goes into making sure that it retains its shine and style," Knockout feebly defended.

Before the playful banter of the impromptu reunion could go any further, Kira stepped forward so that he could address the Ultracon Scientist directly. "Quicksilver said you had discovered something before leaving the Decepticons that could prove helpful to us."

"Well technically Headcase and I both discovered it," Knockout admitted. "And it really wasn't an intentional discovery to be completely honest. You see, Headcase and I had been running some experiments on the Dark Energon and what other supplies we had of other varieties such as synthetic and normal in an attempt to further minimize its potent effects on the Decepticon forces, until one day, something completely unexpected happened."

"Sometime during your little raid to save Optimus from the Decepticon base on Chaar, one of the explosions caused a few chemicals to be knocked over and mixed into the normal and synthetic energon samples that we had been working with that day. At first we figured it was just creating an unwelcome mess that we would end up having a hard time cleaning because of how hazardous it was likely to be, but before we could get started, something completely unexpected happened," Headcase continued as he walked over with a vial in his hands. Looking at the vial, everyone could see a silvery substance inside that seemed similar to energon when it was in liquid form, and whenever it came into the light in just the right way, they could all swear that it shimmered like a thousand stars in the night sky. "The chemicals and the two types of energon mixed together to form this, and when the substance came into contact with the Dark Energon sample we had been working with that day, the dark energon crystal suddenly began breaking down completely until there was nothing left of it."

"After analyzing what little remains of the vial crystal under the best microscope we had, we also discovered that it was not just broken apart, but all of the potency and energy in the crystal had been wiped out, almost like it had never even been there in the first place. Later on, we decided to see what would happen if we were to use this substance on a Terrorcon, and upon exposing the smallest of drops onto one, the Terrorcon lost all of those horrendous scars they typically had and dropped to the floor, returning to the way it was before he had been revived," Knockout finished.

"Are you saying that this stuff can actually kill Terrorcons," Yzak exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, we're saying that this stuff, which we've come to call Silver Energon, can reverse all of the effects of Dark Energon," Headcase clarified. "Simply put, you could say that it could potentially serve as a counterbalance to Dark Energon and its ability to revive the dead, but returning the dead to their peaceful rest."

"Truly fascinating," Drift gasped in awe. "With such a substance, perhaps we could return the Chaos Bringer to the rest he was once held in."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Banshee remarked as she entered the room, looking for something that she needed to help in repairing the base's defenses. "We tried using the stuff and Galvatron and Le Creuset during our escape, but it did nothing, so it would be safe to assume that it wouldn't have any effect on Unicron either."

"But it can definitely return the Terrorcons to being dead again instead of being undead monsters," Quicksilver reassured everyone.

"Well, how much of this stuff do you have," Shiho then asked, voicing the million dollar question for everyone.

The minute that Shiho did ask that though, each one of the Ultracons that were currently present gained sheepish expressions until Knockout finally admitted, "Headcase is holding the entire supply."

"You mind repeating that for me," Waltfeld asked, hoping that he had heard wrong.

"Like I said, we discovered this substance by accident, and we had to leave most of it behind in our destroyed labs or use it on any Terrorcons that got in our way. We've been trying to reverse engineer the formula for creating this stuff ever since," Knockout explained.

"That's why we can't leave just yet," Quicksilver piped in once more. "All of our notes on our research for creating Silver Energon are here in this base, so until we've finally discovered how to create more of it, we can't leave until we're sure that we've discovered the correct formula."

"But if the Decepticons really have discovered your location, can you really afford to stay here just for some experiment that may or may not work again," Strongarm questioned.

"Of course we can't, but this may be one of the most vital keys to destroying Galvatron, Rau Le Creuset, and Unicron. We don't really have a choice," Quicksilver argued.

No one was sure what to say in response to that. It was certainly true that they needed every advantage that they could get in the coming battle against Unicron, wherever it may take place, and if they had a way to eliminate the Terrorcons, which made up an impressive portion of the Decepticons' forces, then they could not really afford to let this slip out of their grasp. In addition to this, one look at the determined fire in the eyes of each member of the Ultracons easily told them that they would continue working here no matter what the Autobots and their human allies did. Add in the fact that Quicksilver did not seem to be in the best condition for traveling at the moment unless he was not doing all that much, and the options that they had quickly became much more limited. Each and every one of these factors all went into his decision when Optimus finally turned to address his friends and comrades.

"Elita, can you do anything to assist Knockout and Headcase in their work," Optimus asked his sparkmate.

"Hey, Ratchet helped one of these guys figure out how to create cyber matter using synthetic energon, and he taught me a lot of what he knows. If I wasn't able to help somehow, then I'd willingly go back to being Ratchet's student again," Elita replied confidently.

Optimus nodded in response to this, knowing what being a direct student to Ratchet entailed and how Elita did not want to do so again if she could help it, and then turned to address the rest of the team. "While Elita, Knockout, and Headcase continue working to recreate the formula for Silver Energon, we will assist the other Ultracons in fortifying this base's defenses and patching them up as best as we can."

"Understood," everyone other than Elita nodded in response, and they were all quickly racing off in different directions to help with whatever tasks that they could.

Seeing the Autobots and the humans doing all this to help them brought a small smile to Quicksilver's face, and he soon found himself muttering a small thank you before trying to stand again, only to nearly collapse to the floor a second later. The only reason he did not crash to the floor completely as because Smokescreen was quick to catch him after seeing his old friend start to stumble a little. "Hey, save your strength, pal. You're gonna need it just for when we're finally ready to get out of here, and we are going to get out of here with that Silver Energon formula. All of us," Smokescreen promised his old friend.

Quicksilver just looked at Smokescreen before turning his gaze to glance between Optimus and Kira, who had climbed out of the Strike Freedom so that he could provide some help that could only come from someone who was human-sized, and then finally said, "Yeah. Yeah, we will."

* * *

Natarle and Bumblebee had been a bit skeptical about trusting the group of former Decepticons, but in the end, Optimus and Kira had somehow managed to reassure them of their trustworthiness and the two were soon bringing the ships into stronger, defensive positions around the base. That did not mean that they were trusting the Ultracons completely though, because Optimus and Kira both made sure that both the Autobots and Gundam pilots would keep an Ultracon leader within sight at all times while they were working. So far though, none of the Ultracons gave even the slightest indication of betraying them, and they were all open to working alongside someone who had previously been a sworn enemy after a brief amount of time, so both the last Prime and the Ultimate Coordinator were very optimistic about the chances of the Ultracons truly being new allies in their fight against Unicron, his heralds, and the Decepticons.

In the time that had passed since they had agreed to work together, everyone had managed to get the temporary base up to a reasonably strong level of defensive power, while Elita, Knockout, and Headcase managed to make some reasonable amount of progress in figuring out the exact formula for creating more Silver Energon, but throughout that entire time, there had not been so much as one, small sign of any more Decepticons coming in to attack them. While this was good news for the most part, especially since the three scientists were able to work in peace without worrying about the ceiling coming down on them, it only made Optimus and Kira more and more worried with each passing second, because there was just no telling how much stronger the next attack force could be if they were taking such a long time to arrive. For all any of them knew, they would end up fighting Unicron himself in a moment, at least in a worst case scenario, but beyond that, it was rather difficult to really say anything for certain at the moment.

The two eventually had to shove their concerns aside for a bit when Elita suddenly called out for them to come back to the lab as quickly as they could while they were doing a quick patrol of the skies. By the time Optimus and Kira had gotten there, everyone else had already gathered in the lab to see what the three had managed to accomplish. "Well Elita," Kira asked when he saw that everyone was present.

"I think we've finally got it," Elita confirmed with a proud smile. "The chemical composition that results from our latest attempt at recreating Silver Energon seems to be a solid match to the sample that Headcase and Knockout had managed to hold onto, but we still need to actually test it to see if it will work just to be sure."

"And how're we supposed to do that? It's not like we've got any Terrorcons lying around here somewhere," Shiho pointed out.

A minute later, most of the Ultracons seemed to gain slightly sheepish looks, drawing suspicious, questioning glares from each of the Autobots, the Gundam pilots, and even their own leader. "Is there something one of you would like to share with me," Quicksilver questioned his troops in a tone that dared them to say anything that was not true.

"We…actually have a Terrorcon here. Being held as a prisoner in the strongest restraints we have in the base," Headcase finally admitted.

"You what," Quicksilver shouted along with the Autobot and Gundam Teams.

"Hey, hey! Before you go judging us, try to understand," Knockout insisted, hoping that his explanation would appease the clearly growing anger that was being directed towards him and his current lab partner. "We knew that just recreating Silver Energon without being absolutely certain it would work, so we figured that we should at least bring along one of the Terrorcons with us so that we could properly test it whenever we came close to a correct solution."

"That doesn't matter, you idiots! Don't you get it?! That's how they managed to track us down! Unicron, Galvatron, and Le Creuset can sense the location of any of their Terrorcons, and by taking one of them, you practically led them to our doorstep," Quicksilver snapped.

As if to emphasize his point, the base suddenly began to shake under the force of an explosion, prompting Banshee to race over to a nearby terminal so that she could check to see what was going on outside. "They're here," Banshee started off. "And Galvatron and Le Creuset are leading the way with an army of Terrorcons and Predacon drones."

"Kinda wish we had Predaking with us right now at the very least," Yzak muttered.

"We'll make do with what we have," Kira stated confidently. "Elita, help Knockout and Headcase with testing that Silver Energon solution that you guys just finished on their captured Terrorcon. Athrun, you and Smokescreen stay here and stand ready in case it doesn't work and their subject ends up breaking free."

"Roger that," Athrun nodded while Smokescreen saluted in reply.

"Then the rest of us shall stall the Decepticon forces," Optimus finished for his young friend, earning nods of agreement from everyone.

"Let's get moving then," Quicksilver stated as he started to stand, only to end up falling back onto the medical bed he had been sitting on once again.

"You're still hurt, Quicksilver," Roadhog told his leader. "Just let us handle them for now. We can do this."

Quicksilver did not like the idea of sitting on the sidelines while his forces fought, but he could not deny what Roadhog had said, so in the end, he simply nodded in reluctant agreement of this point, leaving Optimus and Kira to lead the rest of the Ultracons, and all of the Autobots and Gundams other than Athrun, Elita, and Smokescreen out into the battlefield. When the team heading out into battle departed, Knockout quickly led the remaining individuals over to a sealed off room in the back where he and Headcase had been keeping the captured Terrorcon.

"For the record, I was certain that the shielding in this room would keep Galvatron, Le Creuset, or Unicron from sensing our guest's location," Knockout informed everyone as he led them in.

"Nothing regarding Dark Energon is certain when it comes to the one that it comes from," Quicksilver pointed out to Knockout from where he was sitting.

"Out of curiosity, who is the Terrorcon that you have here, anyway," Smokescreen asked, both to keep an argument from starting and out of genuine curiosity as to whether or not the Terrorcon in question was anyone they might know.

Knockout lowered his helm in shame for a minute before gesturing for the Autobots and their human ally to see for themselves. When they did, the three immediately gasped in shock at the Terrorcon that was strapped down on the table before them. "Dreadwing," Athrun gasped.

Indeed, there on the table before them, struggling against his restraints as the glowing, purple scars that were typical of all Terrorcons shone brightly, was the undead form of Athrun's first Transformer partner, who had given his life to ensure that Earth would be destroyed by the original GENSIS. Seeing Dreadwing had been revived as such a horrible monster the first time was already terrible enough for Athrun, and seeing him like this now was not any better. When he registered that a hand had been placed on the shoulder of the Infinite Justice, Athrun turned to see a sorrowful-looking Knockout gazing at him as he said, "I know how you feel, Athrun, and honestly, I also find it upsetting that Galvatron had brought Dreadwing back like this. If there were a way for us to remove the Dark Energon from his system and truly bring him back, I would gladly use it, but not even Cybertronians can revive the dead. His spark has already passed on to the Well of AllSparks. At this point, we'd be doing him a favor by restoring him to his peaceful rest."

Athrun looked from the Ultracon to the undead form of Dreadwing, feeling as though looking between the two would help make things a little easier for what had to be done, until he finally took a deep breath and nodded for them to proceed. Seeing that they had Athrun's approval to do this, Headcase and Elita quickly moved to stand on either side of Dreadwing, weapons ready to go at a moment's notice, and once they were in position, they nodded to signal Knockout that they were ready. Knockout then removed the smallest sample of Silver Energon that he could afford to manage from their most recent solution and slowly walked over before injecting it into Dreadwing's arm. After Knockout removed the syringe, everyone held their breaths and watched nervously for any signs of a reaction from Dreadwing, and for a moment, it seemed as though nothing was going to happen.

Just when they were all beginning to think that it did not work, the scars on Dreadwing's body suddenly started to glow differently than they normally did, as the dark purple of the horrible substance in his system began to fade and become replaced with shinning silver, until eventually the scars had disappeared completely. Dreadwing then suddenly let out a loud, almost animalistic roar as this process took place, until his voice started to sound a bit more like his normal one had, while his optics lost the dark purple tint and returned to their original color. After a few more moments, Dreadwing seemed to slowly glance around him until he saw the Infinite Justice standing in front of him, and he then let a gentle smile form on his face before all light in his optics had gone out, and his body became lifeless once again.

Knockout and Elita immediately ran a few scans of Dreadwing's body just to be sure that they were not seeing things, and when their scans finally showed that there was no sign of anything in Dreadwing's system, be it Dark Energon or a normal life sign, they just exchanged sad looks with everyone else in the room. This was probably the first time that a medical scientist or any scientist for that matter was sad to see that they had succeeded.

Athrun on the other hand, while happy to see that the Silver Energon had been successfully recreated, was much more upset and angered by the fact that he now had to watch his old friend die a second time, and when he turned towards the sound of a nearby explosion, he immediately thought of the perfect person to take his anger out on.

* * *

Even with the added support of the Ultracons, the battle outside was not an easy one. Galvatron and Le Creuset were practically storming the base with the largest swarm of Terrorcons and Predacon drones any of the heroes of Earth and Cybertron had seen to date. That mattered very little though, since right now, they had to keep the facility safe as long as Knockout, Headcase, and Elita needed them to, so that was what they did, with Yzak taking the lead on the main defensive lines while Optimus and Kira engaged Galvatron and Le Creuset directly. Over the course of the battle, the Ultracons proved just how effective they were in battle against their former comrades, and they did not hesitate for a minute to share some information on how to best counter whatever attack formations the Decepticons attempted to use against them, which Natarle and Bumblebee were happy to hear since it allowed them to easily push the enemy back with the _Seraphim_ and the _Omega III_ 's weapons much more easily than they had ever been able to before.

At one point though, just when Optimus and Kira were about to land a serious blow against Galvatron and Le Creuset, the two psychopaths suddenly froze in their tracks and cried out in pain, almost as though the two had somehow been dealt a much more serious amount of injury than either they or their opponents had realized until now. "What's…What has happened," Galvatron groaned with a snarl.

"What have you and the traitors done, Kira Yamato and Optimus Prime," Le Creuset roared angrily.

"Why are the blaming us for their sudden bout of crazy," Dearka asked.

"Why do bad guys always blame us for everything when things don't go their way even when it isn't our fault," Hound asked in retort.

Before anyone could answer any of the questions that were posed, a sudden stream of a silvery substance suddenly streaked through the air and splattered into one of the Terrorcons. A second afterwards, the Terrorcon let out an agonizing scream before it finally fell limp and dropped to the ground below. Turning to the source of the stream allowed everyone to see Knockout holding a large weapon that connected to a tank on his back which was filled to the brim with the same substance that he had just fired, and the Ultracon in question could only smirk as he said, "Have a taste to our little cure for a bad case of Terrorcon-syndrome."

A second after Knockout had spoken, the Infinite Justice blasted into the air with Blast Blade already flying beside it and powerlinxing to the Gundam's back so that it could access its Blade Cannons, and the red machine made a hard line for Le Creuset and Galvatron with its powerful weapons already charging up to fire or slash at the two. "You bastards are going to pay for your blatant acts of disgrace of desecration of the dead," Athrun snarled as he attacked the two in a blind furry.

Neither of the two said anything in retort to Athrun's ranting, but instead just found an opening in his rage-fueled attacks to push him back before they both ordered their forces to do everything they could to stop the two groups from leaving. In an instant, the collective Decepticon forces were directing all of their focus onto the two ships that were currently descending to the base so that everyone could climb aboard, and everyone who was not already well on the ships was forced to do whatever they could to defend the vessels until the other had gotten aboard, with Kira, Optimus, Athrun, Smokescreen, and even Quicksilver acting as the strongest forces of defense for the others. Eventually, nearly everyone other than those four had boarded the _Omega III_ , including the Ultracons, but there was still the matter of clearing a path for the two ships so that they could get off the planet and to a safe distance in order to open a Space Bridge. Quicksilver insisted that he could easily fly up there and help clear a path from the enemy's rear, but considering he still seemed heavily damaged, none of the other three were willing to let him take that risk, so they quickly dismissed the idea and convinced him to get aboard one of the two ships so that they could focus more on getting through.

Quicksilver attempted to argue, but when he received a particularly nasty hit to his side, he found that he no longer had a choice in the matter and he boarded the _Omega III_ as quickly as he could. With Quicksilver now aboard one of the ships, the three were quick to turn their attention back to the enemy swarm before them, and they immediately raced forward to meet them head-on, with Optimus taking the lead with both the Star Saber and his Minigun in hand. With Optimus leading the charge for them, Kira found that he now had the perfect chance to turn his attention to Athrun so he could suggest their next course of action. "Athrun, let's give it a try," Kira told his friend.

"Okay, I'm ready," Athrun nodded, and the two immediately blasted their Gundams forward in a synchronized movement.

Once they had reached a certain distance, Athrun ejected the Infinite Justice's backpack from its back and sent it flying forward before separating the machine's arms and legs from the main body. A second later, the Strike Freedom's wings folded in so that the Infinite Justice's backpack could dock into place over the wings, while the red machine's arms and legs slid into place over the same appendages of the Strike Freedom like pieces of armor. Once that was done, the Strike Freedom's head folded into its body while its shoulders extended outwards, allowing the main body of the Infinite Justice to slide into place over it like the rest of the red machine had in relation to the Strike Freedom. With the two Gundams now fully fused into one, a new helmet that seemed to combine the design of the Strike Freedom's with the sleekness of the Infinite Justice's extended up with a pair of V-fins extending out from the center of the forehead once it did. With this combination of machines now complete, the two pilots instantly shouted together, "Infinite Freedom Gundam, ready for action!"

With this powerful new Gundam now fully formed and ready for action, the two best friends rocketed forward and unleashed a new kind of strength that they had never possessed before now. The Infinite Freedom was easily able to utilize the weapons of both of its two component machines, and it was very easily handled since it was being controlled by two pilots who were such good friends. Of course, from an outside perspective, piloting such a powerful machine would require two pilots on principle, as there would be little chance of being able to properly work a lot of the Infinite Freedom's weapons systems while controlling its incredibly fast movements at the same time. Fortunately, both Kira and Athrun knew each other's fighting styles so well that they were able to easily predict how to react in accordance with the others actions, and that resulted in them being the ones who played the most significant role in breaking through the enemy lines.

Once the hole in the enemy swarm was big enough, the two ships blasted up out of the planet's atmosphere as fast as they could, with Optimus and the Infinite Freedom now moving to cover their rear. Thankfully, the two were easily able to get back out into space again on their own, and as a result, they were both able to unleash one last, powerful wave of attacks against the Decepticon forces; an attack that consisted of an incredible wave of energy from the Star Saber, and a massive barrage of various energy blasts from the Infinite Freedom's many weapons, which included the Blade Cannons that it could still access in its combined state. With their enemies well-fought back, the three immediately returned to their respective ships, with Kira and Athrun separating their machines before going aboard, and the two vessels immediately jumped into a Space Bridge back to Earth, none of them really knowing just what this little adventure would spurn from their enemies.

* * *

 **"UTTER AND COMPLETE FAILURES! How could you let this happen,"** Unicron bellowed at Galvatron and Le Creuset after they reported what had happened to their master.

"Lord Unicron, please forgive us. We had no way of knowing that they would actually discover something that could accomplish a feat such as this," Le Creuset tried to say, only to be inflicted with an extreme wave of agonizing pain for his words.

 **"SILENCE, YOU FOOL! You were both well aware that there were traitors among your ranks, and yet not only did you not eliminate them all, you allowed them to escape and ally with the Prime, his human protégé, and all those who follow them! Do you have any idea what this discovery they've made COULD CAUSE FOR OUR PLANS!"**

"Lord Unicron, we had very little reason to suspect any further treachery after eliminating Starscream and the Predacons departure from our ranks. Had we known that there was a substance that could counter the effects of Dark Energon, we would have acted in any way that was possible to prevent it from being discovered," Galvatron insisted, though he still braced himself for his own onslaught of agony immediately after.

Surprisingly, it never came, prompting curious looks from both Galvatron and Le Creuset, who had since recovered from his agony once it had abruptly stopped. **"You make a reasonable case in your favor, my herald,"** Unicron admitted. **"Until now there such a substance has never existed, so there was no reason to believe anyone could create one like it. Now that it does though, it may cause others to believe that there is actually a hope for their survival."**

"Then might I suggest we destroy that hope before it can begin to form," Galvatron offered.

 **"You may, but it is not needed, for I already know what must be done. Inform your followers that we will be accelerating our plans, and shall eliminate the greatest opposition to our plans in a matter of days,"** Unicron ordered.

"Yes, Lord Unicron," the two replied, and they immediately turned to depart for the _Nemesis_ while their master's massive form began to move in the direction of said target. They may have been a few days away from said target, even at Unicron's maximum speed, which was quiet considerable considering his size, but there was no suppressing the dark excitement that all three felt at what would happen when they arrived at what would soon be their first target, because once it was gone, there would be no hope left for anyone to cling onto.

* * *

 ** _AN: Okay, so I didn't really go into great detail about what had happened in the celebrations for the team's grand return after the events of the last chapter, but obviously we're not going to focus on parties and celebrations when there's a giant, planet destroying monster that is literally the devil himself, at least for the Transformers, out there causing problems, but we still managed to work in a few things that were a bit more lighthearted, such as the conversation between Miriallia and Dearka. (Before anyone asks, yes that was inspired by a conversation between Tali and Garrus in Mass Effect 3)_**

 ** _Moving onto the matter of the Ultracons. Well after having Quicksilver promising to avenge Starscream's death, you didn't think I was just going to let him and the others who followed Starscream fade into the background until the last minute did you? That's been done before, and is kinda boring. Plus, this way the Autobots and the Gundam Team gets some more allies while also gaining a new tool to guarantee their victory in the battle against Unicron, at least in terms of dealing with the Terrorcons._**

 ** _While we're on the subject, the whole Silver Energon thing was actually something that someone had suggested to me a while back for the exact purpose that had been mentioned in the story: countering the effects of Dark Energon, at least in terms of the ones that bring back the dead. I just had to figure out how to introduce it into the story and this was the best option._**

 ** _Finally, the matter of the Infinite Freedom, aka the combined form of the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice. Yes, this is the only other Gundam combination we will see in this story, partly because it was the best one I could think of, and we don't really have enough time for all that many other combos to really get much of a chance to shine. If you're having trouble thinking of how the Infinite Freedom is formed, just think of it like how Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime combine in Transformers RiD (2001) and you might have a pretty good idea. Beyond that though, basically, the Infinite Justice becomes like a powerful suit of armor with additional weapons for the Strike Freedom, so that should help a bit._**

 ** _That's all I can really talk about for now, because if I were to keep going, I'm a bit worried that I would give away spoilers for the last few chapters of this bad boy, and we all know how I feel about spoilers...haha...ha...okay. Just go Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The current location and first target of the Chaos Bringer is revealed, and every last warrior that the Autobots and Gundam Team has ever met are soon gathering together in order to defend the world that Unicron has designated as his first target for destruction. Even with the new edge provided by Silver Energon, the best plan for defeating the Chaos Bringer proves to be a desperate one, and many find themselves seeking the comfort of those closest to them on the eve of what will likely prove to be the final battle in the long struggle against the Decepticons. Our darkest hour is now about to descend upon us, and one can only hope that a small glimmer of light will be able to shine through in the end now. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 31: The Final Struggle Begins** ** _. Return to the place where this all began for the final battle, Gundam and Autobots!_**

 ** _Ya see that? Like I said, nearing the end. Until then though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	31. The Final Struggle Begins

_**AN: Well, if you need a clearer sign that this story is just a short ways away from wrapping up, you won't get one more clear than this, because with this chapter, the final battle has begun!**_

 _ **Bumblebee: Along with a number of other things that take place.**_

 _ **AN: Shh! Don't say anything! You're gonna end up nearly giving away a spoiler, and then I'll have to do something to prevent you from doing so, and I'd rather not do that now, Bumblebee.**_

 _ **Kira: Uh, maybe we should start the chapter before anything completely nuts happens.**_

 _ **AN: Good idea. Alright everyone, let's roll out!**_

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 31: The Final Struggle Begins**

When the team had returned to Earth with the Ultracons, everyone was naturally wary of the former Decepticons. Despite all the reassurances that Quicksilver gave them that his team was now fighting for the same cause as the Autobots and Gundam Team, no one was willing to trust them completely, especially given all that had happened between them in the past. Thankfully, Optimus and Kira were able to reassure everyone that the Ultracons could be trusted, so they were a bit more open to the idea. That did not mean that they were foolish enough to completely trust them without any concern for a double-cross, and as a result, Optimus and Kira both assured everyone that each of the Ultracons will be under the watchful eye of at least one Autobot and Gundam pilot at all times while they were working and that they would be kept out of any vital areas in the bases and ships that they were brought to unless absolutely necessary. Smokescreen was sure that such conditions would not go over well with his old academy friend, but thankfully, Quicksilver readily agreed to the conditions, saying that they were reasonable considering their past up until now, and that he and his group were happy that they were not being locked up in a stasis pod for what they had done, bare minimum.

With these conditions in place, Knockout and Headcase were soon brought to the Scotland facility so that they could begin creating more Silver Energon among other projects that revolved around the substance and its capabilities. One of the most important of those projects was the modification and upgrading of the shielding devices that the Autobots had created for blocking out Dark Energon, since there was no question that they would encounter the substance in great quantities when they finally confronted Unicron, and by extension, they were also quick to start making some similar shielding devices that could be applied to the Gundams as well as other mobile suits and ships for said engagement, as a means of ensuring that none of the human piloted machines would fall victim to the evil substance as well. It was rather strange for everyone involved to be working alongside the former Decepticons, in some cases more so than others, but after a while, everyone was quickly starting to open up to the idea and became more accepting of the Ultracons' claims. Of course, that did not mean no one was able to forget everything about the former enemies, such as in the case of Shinn and Lunamaria in regards to Headcase. The two Gundam pilots could still well remember their first encounter with the possibly insane scientist, and that alone was enough to make them feel a bit creeped out by Headcase, and the fact that they were sure that Headcase was sometimes throwing some rather disturbing looks at them every now and again did not help matters all that much.

Even with such discomforts, the heroes of Earth and Cybertron were definitely feeling a bit more at ease knowing that they now had something that could prove to be very effective against the Chaos Bringer when he next appeared, but there was still the matter of finding Unicron hanging over their heads. Feldt, Erica, Sai, and Fixit were all working around the clock until they finally managed to get their Dark Energon scanner working, with some help from Knockout who had spent a great deal of time studying the vile substance, and after testing it to make certain that it did work, and could detect a signal from Dark Energon that was a great distance away, they immediately set to work doing everything they could to locate the largest source of Dark Energon in the galaxy. Of course, finding Unicron was only half the problem, and they all knew that quite well. This was not going to be like the final battles in the First and Second Bloody Valentine Wars; they were going to be fighting a titan that was literally the devil himself for the Transformers, and if they did not have something of a solid plan for fighting him, then they were all doomed to perish in any offensive they launched against him. As a result of knowing this, Optimus, Kira, and many of the other leaders of the various factions that fought for the side of good in the universe had started holding as many meetings as they could to form some kind of strategy that could have even the smallest chance of destroying Unicron. Needless to say, it did not seem like they were making much progress, at least if you were to ask anyone who was not involved with such meetings.

Whether they made little progress or no progress at all in these strategy meetings eventually became a moot point, as they day finally came when the team that was scanning the galaxy for a massive Dark Energon source finally found something, garnering the attention of every single member of both the Autobots, the Gundam Team, and everyone else that had been taking something of an active role in this conflict since it began, be it in person, or over a communication line. "You are certain that this reading you've located is Unicron," Ultra Magnus asked, voicing the all-important question for everyone once they had all assembled.

"If it isn't Unicron, then I don't think we'd want to even think about what else it could be," Sai nodded in confirmation as he brought up a galaxy map on one of the monitors in the New Iacon Base for everyone to see. The instant that said map became viewable, everyone could see a large, black and dark purple spot on the map that seemed to be slowly moving across the map, and they were all fixing their gazes on it as Sai continued with what he was saying earlier. "This is by far the largest Dark Energon reading that we've ever seen, and given the way that it's moving in such a straight line, there's very little chance that it's merely a planet with an untapped reservoir of the stuff."

"So now we know where the bastard is, but do we know where he's going," Yzak inquired, glaring at the spot on the galaxy map as he asked.

"Yes, but I'm afraid that none of you will like the answer to that question," Feldt replied, and a quick look over to the rest of the group that had been trying to track down the Chaos Bringer immediately told everyone that the answer was most definitely going to be the bad news portion of their report.

"Just give it to us straight, you guys. Where's Unicron heading," Athrun requested.

The four were all completely silent for a minute, until Fixit finally answered for all of them, his voice not stuttering at all and carrying a very grave, somber tone. "Unicron is heading…for Planet Cybertron."

Feldt was right in her assumption; no one that did not already know of this liked hearing this at all. The reactions they all had were different, but not a single one of them was anything short of mild surprise and concern. If anything, the only ones who did not have at least the smallest bit of a horrified look on their face was the most stoic and emotionally controlled people such as Optimus or Ultra Magnus, at least if one were to judge based on their outside, obvious reactions, but if one knew anyone in the group knew them as well as they each did, then they would be able to tell you that these people were all truly horrified and having a small moment of panic on the inside. After a minute though, the horrified silence was finally broken when Mu finally spoke up, but it what he said was probably not the best thing to say under the circumstances. "It actually makes a lot of sense."

"You wanna run that by us again, La Flaga," the normally cool and collected Jazz demanded as he leveled a glare at the blonde pilot that was easily matched by every Cybertronian that was in the room.

Knowing that this was likely going to end up like what had happened in Tassil if he was not careful with what he said, Mu quickly did his best to think of the best way to word his response before he needed a crane to pull his foot out of his mouth once more. "Well you guys have all said that Primus himself is Planet Cybertron, right?"

"Yes, Primus had become our planet after he defeated Unicron with the aid of the Original Thirteen Primes," Optimus confirmed.

"And if Unicron really is evil incarnate like we all have seen him to be thus far, then I doubt he's just going to take that lying down," Mu continued.

As much as everyone wanted to argue with him on this, they all knew Mu had a point in what he had just said. Unicron would no doubt want to finish what he had started so long ago before being forced into deep stasis for so many eons now, and since Primus was now Cybertron itself, there would be very little to no chance that the god of all Transformers would be able to fight back against his old foe. Of course, that did not mean that there was not going to be anyone to fight in Cybertron's defense at all. "Then we've got to get up to Cybertron right away and start building up our defenses as strongly as possible," Kira decided aloud.

"Kira Yamato is correct," Optimus nodded, addressing the Autobots more so than he was their human allies. "If Unicron wishes to destroy our world, then we must be ready to defend it at all costs with any means that we currently posses at our disposal."

"Optimus, I think I speak for all of us when I say this: We've already had to suffer losing our homeworld once, and none of us plan on losing Cybertron again," Bumblebee stated confidently, and anyone could tell you that each and every Transformer present in this meeting did indeed share that feeling just from looking at the determined fire that was burning in their optics.

"I know that you believe as such, Autobots, but what I am wondering is if any of our other allies will be willing to die for our world, be it those who have been with us the longest, or who had only just recently joined us," Optimus clarified, casting a glance at the humans, the Predacons, and the Ultracons as he finished speaking.

Shockingly, Predaking was the first to speak up in response to Optimus' concerns. "I realize that my brethren and I may not have been created on Cybertron, but that world is still our place of origin, and it was the home of our ancestors. That makes it our home as well, so if these monsters wish to threaten Cybertron, then they will know the wrath of the true Predacons."

It became clear that Predaking's feelings were shared by his brethren when the rest of the Predacons let out roars of agreement the minute he finished speaking, and after hearing this, Quicksilver took his chance to speak. "I realize that my fellow Ultracons and I were once allies with the enemies that we will be facing in this upcoming battle, but we would not be here at all if we weren't prepared for such things. Galvatron, Rau Le Creuset, and Unicron have all soiled what little honor the Decepticons had before, and we intend to restore it to them, even if we never rejoin them. That aside, some of us do have a personal stake in this due to the fact that Master Starscream was killed by those monsters. I won't sit back and watch while others fight for us."

"The same goes for us too," Thundercracker nodded as he gestured between himself and Sky Warp.

"And all the rest of us as well," Knockout confirmed with a nod as he waved between himself and the other Ultracons. "Besides, someone has to help make sure that those Silver Energon devices are in perfect working order when this starts, and who better than the people who helped to discover the substance in the first place?"

That left just one group left to voice whether or not they would help in this matter, and that group did not leave anyone waiting for long as Kira, Lacus and Cagalli each stepped forward to make sure that they had the Transformers' attention. "When you guys first came here, some of us weren't really sure what to think. The idea that there were actually alien beings among us was mind boggling to say the least, but then you guys started to really grow on us, and you became more than just allies fighting to help keep us safe from your enemies and our own in a war that was completely senseless. You became our friends, and more than that, many of you became a vital part of our lives to the point where you became family," Cagalli started off.

"When any of you were hurt, we feared for your lives, we were sad and questioning what we should do, you gave us comfort and the resolve to carry on despite the obstacles we were facing, and when our world was threatened, be it from forces that were of your world or our own, you willingly risked your lives to help save both us and the Earth, and that goes for both the planet itself and the PLANTs," Lacus continued.

"And even when things seemed to be at their darkest, you've helped to remind us time and again that you have to have faith in what you're fighting for, be it peace, understanding between others, or even a better tomorrow. It doesn't matter if you were from Cybertron, Velocitron, or anywhere else the universe. All Transformers have done humanity a great service, both in terms of what you've done to defend our world and what you've done to help us to become better as a people. So I think the better question is how can we really just sit back and do nothing when your world is now facing such a great threat? You've given everything to help us keep Earth safe, so now it's our turn to help you save Cybertron," Kira finished.

Optimus could not have stopped the smile that came to his face even if he wanted to. Hearing all of these things from the three and seeing that their feelings were shared by every single person in the room that he and the Autobots had met over the years since coming to Earth truly left him feeling quite touched to the point where he was sure that if his spark grew any warmer from this, it would completely overheat. He knew that Kira was not just saying this because they were all feeling like they were only doing this to repay a long overdue debt, but because they all honestly wanted to help save the Cybertron just like he and the Autobots had done so many times for Earth. Words could not even come close to expressing the gratitude he felt at this, so he could only hope that the simple nod of thanks he gave would be enough to show how grateful he truly was to his human friends.

All good feelings aside, there was still one matter that they needed to address, and they were all quickly reminded of this when Dearka decided that they needed to put an end to the warmhearted moment for a little bit and asked, "Whether or not any of us want to fight this battle may be important, but do we even have a plan on how to defeat Unicron?"

There were a few small glances exchanged between Kira, Optimus, and the rest of the various leaders present before Optimus finally revealed the answer to that question. "There is but one plan that has even the smallest chance of succeeding. While our main fleets attack Unicron and the Decepticon forces from the outside, Kira Yamato and I can lead a small team inside of Unicron so that we may destroy him from within."

"This is sounding a little too familiar to me," Bulkhead moaned, earning nods of agreement from Bumblebee, Arcee, Hound, and Elita a second later.

"Optimus, you're not planning to use the Matrix again, are you," Miriallia asked.

Kira ended up responding before Optimus could even attempt to get a word in. "Absolutely not! The last time he did that, he lost nearly all of his memories from his time as a Prime, and ended up being tricked into joining the Decepticons for a bit, and we may not even be able to use Vector Sigma to turn him back to normal this time, even if he does give me the key again."

Even though he was talking to the room at large, everyone was able to tell that Kira was directing most of his words at Optimus himself, indicating that this was most likely a discussion that the two had a few times before now. This theory proved true when Optimus told his friend, "I do not need to give you the key to Vector Sigma, Kira, because it is already yours to keep. It has long since recognized you as one of its owners. More importantly, if no other options present themselves, there may not be any other choice than to use the Matrix directly on Unicron's spark."

"But when you did that last time, it just blasted Unicron's spark out of Earth's core. Won't it just do the same thing here," Feldt questioned.

"Not in this case," Ultra Magnus denied. "If Optimus were forced to use the Matrix on Unicron's spark while it is in its proper place, it will most likely inflict a heavy amount of damage to Unicron's spark, forcing him to return to his previous state of stasis, this time for all of eternity."

"Wait, it'll only put him back into stasis? Why not just destroy him for good and be done with it," Heine asked. This was a question that everyone was wondering, as they were all sure that they would want to get rid of Unicron for good.

"If we were to destroy Unicron entirely, the resulting imbalance between the forces of light and darkness would be catastrophic. We would only be trading one catastrophe for an even greater one," Optimus explained.

"Huh," was the response that the last Prime's explanation received from a good majority of the room.

"He's basically saying that even though Unicron is evil incarnate, we can't destroy him completely because he is a representation of the greatest darkness that allows our universe to exist," Kira explained. "It's kinda like how you can't have heads without tails on a coin, or how you can't have a hero without a villain."

"So if we destroy Unicron, we'd only be making a bigger disaster because we have to have evil in the universe," Cagalli asked, incredulously.

"I am afraid so, Cagalli," Optimus nodded. "For every force in the universe, there is an equal and an opposite. For every good, an evil, for every victory, a defeat, and for every hero, a villain. You cannot have one without the other. This is a great reason as to why Primus had never been able to destroy Unicron entirely no matter how many times they had clashed."

This was not something anyone wanted to hear. After all they had been through, all they had to endure in this struggle, they now had to find out that the most they could do to defeat Unicron is put him back to sleep again? It just did not seem fair, even with the information that had just been revealed to them. They could all understand the need to keep a balance between light and darkness like this, but that did not make it any easier to deal with the fact that they were essentially letting an enemy of the universe get off easy for all the terrible, horrendous crimes he had committed, be they against entire worlds, against nature, or even against them personally in one way or another. Still, they had more important things to worry about right now, and the first of those would be forming a solid plan for when they faced Unicron.

"If we want to send a team inside of Unicron, then we would have to make sure that they'll be well protected, and I don't mean just from any defenses that he may have inside of him, but also from the effects of the Dark Energon that they will definitely encounter while they're in there," Murrue pointed out.

"I believe my friend, Knockout and I have already got a solution to that, my dear," Headcase announced, proudly.

"Call me 'my dear' again, and you'll receive a first-hand lesson on just how tough moms are, especially when it comes to one that was once captain of a ship like the _Archangel_ ," Murrue glared at the Ultracon in response, causing him to flinch a little in response.

"Y-yes ma'am," Headcase stuttered, earning a couple of snickers from some of the other people in the room. He soon shook himself out of his new-found fear of Murrue Ramius La Flaga and brought up a display of the schematics of the shielding devices that were used to block out the negative effects of Dark Energon as he went into an explanation on the modifications that he and the others had made to the devices. "After a quick review of these shielding devices capabilities, Knockout and I were able to modify them so that they were powered by Silver Energon, and with the help of our new human friends, Miss Erica, Sai, and Feldt if I'm remembering their names correctly, we were also able to modify the devices so that they could be applied to mobile suits as well."

"More than that, we've also managed to modify them so that the weapons of whoever or whatever their applied to will be enhanced by Silver Energon, and we've developed a similar device that can do the same for all of our ships as well," Knockout continued. "We haven't really been able to perform proper testing for the latter, but every single simulation we've run has had positive results, so we're confident that they will work splendidly."

"So what exactly will that do for us in terms of how effective our weapons will be against Unicron," Natarle asked.

"Well for one thing, you won't need to do any heavy reconfiguring to use Silver Energon on the Terrorcons, as for Unicron himself, that's a different story," Headcase answered. "Without these Silver Energon devices, none of your weapons would be any more effective than a bite from an Earth mosquito. With them however, at least when it comes to everyone who will be attacking from the outside, there is a good chance that you might be able to at least scratch his armor."

"Just scratch his armor? That isn't very encouraging, you know," Heine pointed out.

"Well he did say that was only going to be in the case of anyone who would be fighting from the outside, and not in the case of the team who will be inside of him," Knockout pointed out.

"So then what will be the benefits of these devices for the team that goes into Unicron," Banagher asked.

"Well…if we were to use a medical reference, when the team going into Unicron enters his body with the Silver Energon devices, they will likely be recognized as some form of virus to Unicron, so they will doubtlessly encounter a few of his antibodies or other natural defenses," Knockout explained.

"Yeah, we kinda figured that much from when some of us went into Unicron when he was still inside of Earth's core," Bumblebee pointed out, knowing that the Ultracons had no doubt seen some of their mission files by now.

"Yes, but that time you were just a foreign bacteria that was _possibly_ harmful to Unicron. This time, you will be fully recognized as an _active_ threat to him, since Silver Energon may very well be poisonous to Unicron's body if it were ever directly exposed to him," Knockout corrected with a further explanation.

"Well…that's encouraging," Bulkhead in heavy sarcasm as he shivered in remembrance of the last time they had dealt with Unicron's antibodies.

"And it's also why aside from Optimus and I, no one has to into Unicron if they don't want to," Kira revealed. "I know that some if not all of you are likely worried about going in there, and that's completely understandable because Optimus knows it too, and that's why signing up to go on that part of the mission is completely voluntary for everyone other than the two of us."

"But why is not optional for you, Kira? What makes you think that you _have_ to go in there while the rest of us have a choice," Cagalli demanded.

"I can't really explain it to be honest," Kira revealed. "It's just…I have a feeling that I have to go in there and help Optimus. When Optimus and I first encountered Unicron, he said that he considers me to be a threat to him just as much as Optimus is for some weird reason. If that is the case, then I can't help but feel like I have to go in there with Optimus if there's even a chance that I can help him to stop Unicron."

Everyone who had been present at that time remembered that moment quite well, and they were still just as confused by it now as they were then. Sure, they had all said that Kira and Optimus were a lot alike, but they never thought that it could be to the extent that someone like Unicron would consider Kira as great a threat to them as Optimus would be. If there had been time, they all would have taken a moment to try and think of a few theories as to why Unicron would consider Kira in such a way, though some Autobots already had a few good ideas on the matter, but they did not have any time to do so then, and they certainly did not have time now. After a minute of silence, Athrun finally stepped forward and said, "You can count me in. After all, you and I are a lot stronger together, right, Kira?"

Kira gave a simple nod in reply as he smiled to his childhood best friend, and a second later, Cagalli came forward and said, "Count me in as well. I've gotta do my best to make sure my little brother gets out of this alive and comes home to his loving wife, after all."

Normally, he would have given some sort of retort to Cagalli calling him the younger sibling, but right now, Kira just did not have it in him, and even if he did, Arcee and Smokescreen had both stepped forward to volunteer for the mission before he could. After the two Autobots had done so, Shinn, Luna, and Rey all stepped up as well as the crimson-eyed pilot stated, "We're in too."

"Well if they're going with you, I guess we can't really stay behind and let 'em go it alone, right Crosshairs, Springer," Bulkhead asked as he looked to his fellow Wrecker and the triple-changer.

"Got that right, Bulk," Crosshairs smirked in reply.

"Agreed," Springer nodded.

"Well then, I hope you don't mind having the man who can make the impossible possible along for the ride," Mu offered as he stepped forward.

"Or the Desert Tiger," Waltfeld added as he moved to stand next to the Hawk of Endymion.

Before Wheeljack or Magnus could give a voice to say that they were in as well, Kira immediately said, "Sorry Mu, Mister Waltfeld, but we'll need you guys fighting the battle outside of Unicron."

"You can't be serious, Kira," Mu said in disbelief.

"I am. With the ZERO System helping him, Mister Waltfeld is the best person to help keep our forces fighting Unicron from the outside organized and from falling into a panic at any point, and add in the fact that the Star Force Strike's new Cosmic Charge Mode will help provide an extra amount of fire power, and I think you two can understand why I think you would be better off helping the main fleet," Kira explained.

As much as the two commanders wanted to argue with him, they both knew that Kira had some very strong points in his favor, so they simply nodded in acceptance of this along with their Autobot partners, who had a strong feeling that Optimus would want them in the same positions as the two Gundam pilots. When no one else volunteered for the mission to enter Unicron's body, Optimus and Kira took that to mean that their team was now set, and all that was left to do at that point was to make all the final preparations to move out and head into the upcoming battle. There was just one thing that they needed to know before doing any of that. "How long do we have until Unicron arrives at Cybertron," Optimus asked.

Feldt, Sai, and Fixit were all immediately at a console to check the readouts, each working as quickly as possible to give Optimus and answer. In the end, Sai was the first one to give one, and he revealed, "From what I can tell of his course and speed, based on the data we have here, I'd say that he'll be at Cybertron in about two or three Earth days."

"Three Earth days, six Earth hours from now, to be a bit more exact," Fixit confirmed.

"That's not a lot of time for us to really get ready," DaCosta remarked after he and the others heard that.

"Which means we can't afford to just stand around here and waste another second if we want to be ready," Kira noted. "So, let's burst on and roll out, people!"

Everyone was immediately scrambling to head out of the base and do what they needed to in order to prepare for both their departure to Cybertron and the battle that would await them. Before joining them though, Optimus turned to Fixit and requested that he open up a communication line to all the worlds that they had allies on so that he may send a request to them for aid. Once the link was open, Optimus immediately faced the computer and began his message. "To all worlds that are receiving this transmission, this is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots of Planet Cybertron with an urgent message. I realize that you have all likely suffered greatly in recent days, but now, a much greater threat than any of us have ever encountered is about to descend upon us. Unicron the Chaos Bringer has indeed returned, and he is currently heading towards the birth place of all Transformers, the very world that I and my fellow Autobots, as well as many other Transformers still call home: Cybertron. At this very moment, we and our friends from Planet Earth are preparing to mobilize as much of our forces as we possibly can to defend Cybertron, but I fear that it may still not be enough to defeat this particular foe, for we only have little more than three Earth days until he arrives, and if you are familiar with the Earth timescale in comparison to Cybertron's, then you no doubt already know that is very little time. I have no place to order any of you to come to our aid, and that is why I am not doing so. I ask you…no, I beg you all, please, help us defend our home in this our darkest hour."

With his message sent, Optimus let Fixit cut the communication line and then turned so that he may assist in preparations for their departure while also making his own final preparations, all the while praying that his pleas for help would not go unheard or unanswered, for he was indeed correct to say that this was their darkest hour, for all of the universe.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron**

It took most of the remainder of the day for the heroes to assemble the best of Earth's forces, but eventually, they had assembled the best of Earth's ships, pilots, and soldiers to send to Cybertron, with the _Minerva_ , the _Eternal_ , the _Seraphim_ , and the _Kusanagi_ leading the pack as the main flagships of the fleet just behind the _Omega III_. Once all of the fleet had been gathered, the Autobot vessel was quick to lead them all through a Space Bridge to Cybertron where they would start preparing solid defense lines and brief everyone on the plans that they had for the upcoming battle. Shortly after this large fleet had arrived on Cybertron, a few more ships soon came flying in as well. The first ship was rather ancient, but carried some friends that the Autobots and Gundam team knew as their friends from Velocitron, consisting of Override, Hot Shot, Sideswipe, Skids, and Mudflap, while the second ship turned to actually be the main body of Fortress Maximus, who had transported the Headmasters of Nebulous to the original homeworld of all Transformers. While these first two arrivals were not very impressive due to the fact that they only consisted of one ship for each planet, the final arrivals were actually much more impressive, despite where they came from.

When the Junkions arrived on Cybertron, everyone had expected them to only come on the _Hyperion_ , and while Wreck-Garr had indeed come aboard said vessel, they also came with several smaller ships as well, to the point where one would think that the Junkions had brought their world's entire defensive fleet with them. Seeing so many ships arriving to help defend Cybertron certainly gave everyone a boost of hope for how the battle would turn out in the end, and it also helped serve as another sign of the Junkions' competence as engineers, which they were quick to show more of when they set to work helping to set up a shielding system for Cybertron in case any of the Decepticon forces got past the fleet's defensive lines at any point during the battle. Even so, despite all the help they had and how competent any of their workers and soldiers were, none of this was easily accomplished, nor was it done so in a short time.

Setting up the various defenses and organizing their fleets had taken up a great deal of the three days that they had until Unicron's arrival, and by the time they had finished doing so to a satisfactory level, most of that time was gone, and it was now the night before Unicron was said to arrive, according to Fixit, Sai, and Feldt's predictions. All most of them could really do at that point, especially in the case of the Autobots and mobile suit pilots that would be fighting on the frontlines, was get a good night's sleep, but for some of them, sleep was extremely elusive, no doubt due to the anxiety that they all felt from knowing just what they would be flying into the very next day.

One such person was a certain, blonde pilot of the Verde Buster, who was tossing and turning in his bed as he tried to gain some semblance of sleep in his quarters on the _Seraphim_. The reason why Dearka was on the third ship of the Archangel-class instead of either the _Minerva_ or the _Eternal_ was because he and the rest of the Joule Team had felt that they would be better off launching from that ship for the upcoming battle. It was not like it was the first time they had done so, but they did normally deploy from a Z.A.F.T. ship, so some people still found it needing an explanation. Even so, there was one other reason that Dearka had elected to be part of the _Seraphim_ 's team instead of one of the Z.A.F.T. ships', and that reason actually walked in just seconds after he had gotten up to try and get a drink of water to help his nerves a little.

"Hey," Miriallia greeted softly when she saw the blonde turn to face her. "You can't sleep, either?"

"Not really. Guess I'm feeling a little restless," Dearka replied with a small shrug, trying to brush it off as nothing.

Miriallia was not buying any of it though. "You may fool Yzak and the others with that attitude of yours Dearka, but you can't fool me. Now seriously, are you okay?"

Dearka knew that his girlfriend was not going to let up on the matter that easily, so instead, he just sighed, "Honestly? No, no I'm really not okay. I know we've faced major battles that decided the fate of an entire world in the past, be it Earth, Cybertron, or both, but a battle who's outcome will decide the fate of the entire universe? You can't tell me that wouldn't make even the most confident person a little freaked out, and that's without adding in the fact that we're going to be fighting Decepticons, undead monsters, clones of Le Creuset, Predacon drones, and the guy who is literally the god of death for all Transformers. Any one of those things would make anyone think we're insane for going out there tomorrow, but that last one is the one that has me the most worried. We all saw what he did back when he was just a parasite inside of Earth, so who knows what he's capable of now that he's completely restored to normal, and we're supposed to just sit back and let some of our guys go into that monster while we try to fight him off?! It won't matter if we're fighting on a ship, in a mobile suit, or anywhere, because there's no way we're all going to go home after this, and if anything were to happen to you, to our friends, to any of us I don't know if I could…"

Dearka's rant was silenced before it could go any further when he suddenly found Miriallia wrapping her arms around him in the tightest hug he had ever gotten in his life. Normally he would probably have joked and said he could not breathe due to her hug being so tight, but he held it in when he felt her shaking against him, no doubt because she was just as terrified as he was, so instead, he just wrapped his own arms around her and returned the embrace in a small attempt to try and help ease her nerves just like she was clearly trying to do for him. "I know," Miriallia whispered to him as he ran his hands along her back. "I know you're scared, and you're not alone in that. Every time I think about what might happen tomorrow, and how any one of my friends may end up dead, I always start thinking about what would happen if you ended up dying in this fight, and I start feeling myself breaking because of it, even though it hasn't even happened yet. I've already lost too many people in my life than I care to have lost, so don't you dare talk like that. Don't go out there scared out of your mind that you or anyone else will die, because it'll just make me more afraid that I'll lose you as well."

Barely even halfway through that speech, Dearka could feel tears start falling from the girl's eyes and onto his shoulder, dampening the t-shirt he had been wearing as a nightshirt as they did, but right now, he did not care. All that mattered to him was making sure that the woman he cared so much for was comforted and reassured that he was there right now and that she knew one important thing. "I know that I probably won't be able to make any such thing for certain, but I promise, no matter what happens, you won't lose me, Miriallia. Not tomorrow, not the day after, and not ever. I'll never leave you to suffer like that, because…I love you."

Miriallia let out a small gasp at hearing the blonde say that, and she immediately pulled back a little so that she could look him in the eyes to make sure that she had not heard wrong. When she saw the soft sincerity he was gazing at her with, Miriallia's heart immediately began to swell with happiness, because she knew that he had told her the truth, and that he would make sure to make it back alive tomorrow. "I love you too, Dearka," Miriallia whispered in reply before leaning forward to lock her lips with his in a small kiss, which the blonde gladly returned.

When the two broke away for air, Dearka gently rested his forehead against his girlfriend's and whispered, "Will you…stay with me until the time comes?"

"Gladly. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now," Miriallia smiled in reply, and the two were soon locked in another passionate kiss once again. During this moment of passion, Dearka's hands soon found themselves removing Miriallia's uniform jacket and the shirt she was wearing underneath, while Miriallia quickly removed the shirt that Dearka was wearing, leaving the blonde's bare chest exposed and the top half of the brown haired girl's body was only covered by her bra. The two only paused in their heated moment of passion so that Dearka could lock the door and then dim the lights, showing just how little doubt there would be that either of them would be getting much sleep for a while.

* * *

Dearka and Miriallia were not the only ones who were feeling restless at the moment, as over on the _Kusanagi_ , a certain blonde world leader was also having trouble sleeping, and her attempts to ease her nerves by looking over the reports on how well their preparations had been completed were not helping. The more Cagalli looked over the data in front of her on what they had done to make sure they were ready, the more she felt like there was something else they could have done to help make doubly sure, and the fact that she could not think of what exactly that thing was only made her more nervous about tomorrow. Before she could let out even the softest growl of irritation, a familiar pair of arms suddenly encircled her from behind, until they were locked together at her stomach, and her expression fell into a soft smile when she turned to see her emerald-eyed husband standing behind her with a soft smile on his face. Like the Joule Team, Athrun had decided that he would be onboard a different ship than he normally would have been, but part of the reasoning behind that was because he was technically a member of the Orb Forces and not Z.A.F.T. The rest of his reasoning for this, was the fiery blonde that he was currently holding in his arms.

"You know, you're never going to get any sleep if you keep stressing yourself out like this," Athrun murmured into his wife's ear.

"I know that," Cagalli sighed as she leaned back into Athrun's chest, feeling herself relax from the sensation of the warmth he gave her. "I just keep thinking that there's something else we could've done to make sure we'll come out of this alive."

"Now why do I feel like that's not the only thing that's bothering you," Athrun questioned, but Cagalli knew very well from his tone that it was anything but.

Since there was no way she could hide anything from Athrun, Cagalli sighed and admitted, "I just…I feel like we've left far too much for Banagher and Audrey to worry about. I know this isn't the first time we had entrusted Earth's safety to them, but if we fail, they'll likely be all that's left to stand between Unicron and his plans to destroy the universe."

"Well them, Fixit, and the Rescue Bots," Athrun corrected, lightly.

"Not helping," Cagalli playfully huffed. "My point is, I know that I said I would be coming out here for the final fight so that I could stand by our friends' side and yours, and I meant it, but I just…I feel like…"

"You feel like you should be on Earth too in case something does go wrong," Athrun finished for her. When Cagalli nodded, Athrun gave her a light smile and said, "I know what that's like. Back during the Terrible Autobot Civil War, there were plenty of times that I had wished that I was with you guys even though I knew I had to be with the _Minerva_ and the _Xanthium_ , but eventually, I learned to remind myself that I couldn't be everywhere at once and that I would be with you all again soon enough, and that made it all worth it. We'll get through this together, Cagalli, like we always have before, and we'll go home when it's done."

Cagalli's smile finally became much more relaxed and full after hearing that, but she still had to frown a little at that last bit and say, "You know it's not going to be that easy, Athrun."

"I know," Athrun nodded as he finally managed to turn her around so that she would be facing him while pulling the report she had currently been holding out of her hands. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have faith that we'll come home alive. There's no way I'm going to lose you after all we've been through."

"That goes doubly so for me in regards to you, but you'd better not abandon anyone else just for me," Cagalli lightly warned him.

"Don't worry. You know I wouldn't treat you like some helpless child that needs to be rescued all the time," Athrun lightly teased, and he quickly silenced any retort that Cagalli had by locking her in a loving kiss before she could even get a word out.

Cagalli did not try to fight the passion that her husband was showing to her, but instead welcomed and returned it in equal fervor. When the two finally had to release one another in order to breathe, the blonde just panted a little before she whispered, "I never want to think about what I would do without you. I love you, Athrun."

"I love you too, Cagalli, and believe me, I feel the same way," Athrun replied just as softly.

Cagalli smirked in reply to that and, after checking to make sure their shared quarters were locked, she wrapped her arms around Athrun's neck as she whispered four simple words to him. "Then show me. Please."

Though he knew there was likely a chance that she would deny it later, Athrun could hear the desperate plea in Cagalli's voice, and he immediately granted her request without even the slightest hesitation.

* * *

Over on the _Minerva_ , Shinn had just finished having a small meeting with Heine and Rey on how their team would be best deployed from the ship once they received the okay to launch, and while he was willing to admit that he was worried about what was coming, another part of him was actually a bit excited. One of the biggest fleets to have ever assembled in the history of the universe, all so that it could defeat the greatest evil that had ever existed in Transformers history, and he and his friends were part of it. The mere thought of the matter got his blood pumping in excitement, and if he had not been through the experiences he had during his time in the Future Century, he probably would have felt a little disgusted with himself for actually being excited about such a thing. That did not mean he was planning to go in recklessly with guns blazing, or that he was unaware of what would happen if they lost, but all the same, he was excited for what was coming. His anticipation about what they would soon be facing had run rampant through his mind the entire time he was returning to his quarters on the ship, and they did not settle until he finally entered his room and found his girlfriend waiting for him in a simple, blue t-shirt, her usual skirt, and a smile on her face.

"Hey. I was wondering when you were going to get out of that meeting," Lunamaria greeted him, her smile not faltering in the slightest.

"We actually just finished a few minutes ago, or at least in terms of what I was needed for. What're you doing here, though," Shinn asked.

"I was in my own quarters, trying to get to sleep, but I couldn't because it just felt so…lonely," Luna shrugged like it was no big deal, but Shinn could still hear a slight tremor in her voice. "And the more I thought about how lonely it was, the more I found myself wishing you were with me, and that led me to start hoping that nothing would happen tomorrow that would cause either of us to end up getting separated for any reason, so…"

Shinn did not need Lunamaria to go any further in order to realize that she was scared about what was coming, and he was instantly right next to her and holding her as close to him as humanly possible, quieting the violet-haired girl's rambling the minute his arms were around her. "Don't worry, Luna," Shinn whispered. "I'm never going to leave you alone. No matter what happens, we're in this together, and that doesn't stop at just the two of us either."

"How do you figure that," Luna asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"You can tell just by looking outside," Shinn said. "What's probably the largest fleet to ever exist in the history of our universe is all assembled right out there to help fight the final battle against the ultimate evil in all Transformers history and legends. Cybertronian, Earthlings, Junkions, Velocitronians, Headmasters…they're all here ready to give everything they've got to help stop Unicron, and we helped play a part in bringing them all together."

"But I bet you're still a bit disappointed that a certain pirate isn't here too, right," Luna lightly teased.

"Well…I will admit that is a bit of a letdown, plus, you're really cute when you get riled up because of Thundertron," Shinn teased in response.

"Oh, so I'm not already cute," Luna questioned in a tone of mock insult.

"No, by default, your beautiful, even if you were wearing the most hideous thing in existence," Shinn swiftly replied.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Shinn Asuka," Luna giggled through the blush that had formed on her cheeks.

"But is it flattery if it's true," Shinn questioned in response as he leaned closer to Luna, to the point where they could both feel their breath on each other's skin.

Luna simply rolled her eyes as her arms moved to wrap around Shinn and she whispered, "Just shut up and kiss me, my handsome super ace."

Shinn did not need any further prompting than that, and the two were soon locked in a passionate embrace that did not seem likely to be broken any time soon, or at least until they needed to breathe again. That is, until Shinn pulled back for a minute to say, "Uh…you do know that Rey could show up here any minute, right?"

"Don't worry about him," Luna smirked. "I convinced him to room with Heine for the night, so it's just you and me."

Shinn could only smirk in reply before pulling Luna in for another heated embrace that was doubtlessly going to escalate very quickly. What neither of them knew was that Rey had actually come by hoping to get a change of clothes for the next morning, but he stopped at the door when he heard the faint sounds of moaning coming from the other side. Knowing full well what that could likely mean, the pale blonde haired man immediately spun around on his heel and elected to come back another time. He had no intention of walking in on his two best friends when they were clearly in the middle of something.

* * *

Kira had just come aboard the _Eternal_ after a meeting with Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee, Elita, and the rest of the respective leaders of each group that had come to Cybertron, and it did not escape his notice how Arcee and Elita had both managed to pull their respective mechs aside to have a few words with them after the meeting had concluded, putting a small smirk on Kira's face while making him wonder just how Transformers did certain things that were involved in a romantic relationship. After thoroughly shaking such thoughts from his head, having found it to be rather disturbing to think about his friends taking part in such acts, Kira quickened his pace to the room he shared on the large, pink ship with Lacus, knowing that she was probably waiting for him there. He was correct in that assumption, and he could not help but smile a little when he saw that the songstress-turned-chairwoman was decked out in a simple, white nightgown, but that smile quickly faded when he saw that a small frown was marring her otherwise lovely face.

"How did the meeting go," Lacus asked in a tone that did not really seem like her to Kira.

"About as we expected. Everything's all checked out, and we're about as ready as we can be for what we're about to face tomorrow," Kira replied as he walked over to wrap his arms around her. Surprisingly, Lacus actually pulled away from him when he did, confusing him even more than he already was. "Lacus, is something wrong?"

"No, why do you ask," Lacus replied, only to receive a look from Kira that clearly told her that he did not buy that for a second. "Fine, yes there is something wrong, but it's not like it really matters at this point."

"Lacus, you know that if something is bothering you, you can always tell me what it is, and if I did something to make you angry, then you can at least tell me so that I can better apologize for it," Kira reasoned.

"It's not something that you have done, but what you're _planning_ to do, Kira," Lacus snapped.

"What?"

"Why…why do you have to go in there with Optimus, and don't you dare try to tell me that it's just some feeling because of something that monster had said one time! Do you have any idea how worried I am about whether or not you'll even make it out of there alive? This isn't like when you defeated Rau Le Creuset that first time so many years ago or when you went into Messiah to help Optimus in his final battle with Sentinel; you are planning to go flying straight into the heart of a monster that is the Transformers' devil incarnate! Why should you have to do that when Optimus can handle such a thing alone? Because Le Creuset might be in there?! Because of some _feeling_ you can't explain that was brought about by something that Unicron had said?! I just…I don't want you to go and risk never coming back," Lacus cried, until she could contain herself no more and just flung herself at Kira, crying into his chest as she lightly punched against his chest.

Kira could only stare in shock. He never once realized that Lacus had felt this way about the mission plan that they had revealed to everyone back on Earth, and looking back, he realized that he probably should have. He knew that Lacus was incredibly strong and selfless, right to the point of being at levels that could be considered beyond human capacity, but at the same time, he also knew that even she had a breaking point, and this had clearly pushed her past it. Sure, she may have sounded like she was okay with this plan of theirs, but the fact that he was going to be one of the people that had to go in there was clearly too much for her to handle, and when you considered the fact that he had already flown into missions similar to that on his own with only Optimus backing him up, he could understand why she would be worried. As such, Kira slowly wrapped his arms around his wife, rubbing her back with one hand while his other softly combed through her long pink hair in an attempt to comfort her as he tried to kiss her tears away and let her continue crying into his chest.

"I know that…that this is incredibly selfish of me to be thinking this way when…when we have so much more to worry about, but…but when I think about what you'll be going into…and then start thinking about how real the possibility of losing you this time is…I just…I can't," Lacus continued to sob as she finally gave up her feeble attempts at hitting him and just cried into his chest.

"Oh Lacus," Kira sighed sadly. "Don't do that to yourself. If anyone has a right to be even the least bit selfish at a moment like this, it's definitely you. You've already had to do so much for so many other people, and you had to give up nearly everything in the process. Seeing all the things you've been able to do can cause a lot of people to forget that underneath all of that, you're still just human, and you still need a moment to think about what you want. There's nothing wrong with any of that." Lacus nodded against Kira's chest to show she understood that, obviously not trusting her voice to work right at the moment since she was still crying a little, though Kira's attempts to comfort her did seem to be helping quite a bit, and the Ultimate Coordinator took that as a sign to continue on. "As for why I have to do this…it's not just because of a feeling or because Le Creuset might be there waiting for us with Galvatron…no, there's no 'might be' about it; he will be there, but it's more than that. This is just something that I have to do, and it's not just because of something that Unicron has said. Lacus, so many people have been telling me similar things to that lately. Our friends, Spartan, Optimus, even Alpha Q and the friends Optimus and I made in that other dimension, all of which I had barely even known for that long; they all think that there's something about me that's similar to Optimus or that just makes me like a Prime. I guess you could say that I'm being a little selfish as well, because I feel like if I don't do it, then I won't be able to prove to myself that they might be right. I know it doesn't make sense, but this is just something that I have to do, and I'd rather not do it if you don't want me to."

Lacus let all of that sink in for a minute, knowing exactly what Kira was talking about. She too had seen what everyone else had long since come to see in Kira, and yet even after all of this time, Kira was still unsure about it all himself. Even after being granted the right to hold something like the Key to Vector Sigma, he still did not truly believe that the thing they all now saw in him was there, and if he really needed to do this in order to prove that it was there, then who was she to stand in his way. After mulling it over for another minute, she finally pulled back and dried her eyes with her sleeve before looking Kira dead in the eyes so that she could see how determined he was to do this. Upon doing so she easily saw more than just uncertainty on the matter that he was still unsure of, she also saw a brilliant fire of determination that she could only compare to the one that she had often saw in Optimus' optics, so how could she do anything other than nod in understanding and acceptance of Kira's decision. Before a smile could really form on Kira's face though, she immediately lunged forward and locked him in a hungry, passionate kiss that practically screamed her feeling out for all to hear, no matter where they were in the galaxy, and Kira was quick to reciprocate the action with equal passion.

The two held their embrace until their lungs burned with a desire for air, but they only broke apart long enough for Kira to plant some feather-light kisses on Lacus' jaw line, neck, and collar bone, before pushing aside a bit of her nightgown so that some of her shoulder was exposed to him as well, earning him some breath-taking gasps from the pinkette as he did. After another moment of the breath-taking experience that her husband was subjecting her to, Lacus finally managed to gently push Kira back for a minute so that she could let her nightgown drop from her person, leaving her in just her bra and underwear while a desperate look of desire reached her eyes. Kira did not need much more prompting than that before his uniform had left his own person, until he was left in only his boxers, and the two were soon locked in another passionate embrace while Kira guided his loving wife to their bed, fully intent on making sure she knew just how much he loved her before they both entered the storm that would arrive the following day.

* * *

 **Location: Cybertron's Orbit**

The moment that all would consider to be doomsday finally came at last, and when the clock was about one or two hours away from the time of Unicron's arrival, the entire gathered fleet had taken off and moved to be in orbit around Cybertron with everyone on their respective ships. As the ships were moving into position, everyone did what they could to keep themselves from stressing out about what they were about to face. From running last minute weapons checks, to making sure any other equipment they intended to use was in working order, it did not really matter what it was so long as it was able to keep them from thinking about the incredibly dangerous task that lay before them. There was nothing to say anymore, no inspiring speeches to give, and no words of encouragement that needed to be said to ease anyone's nerves for what they were about to face. They all knew full well what they were up against and what the outcome of this battle would bring, and they were all certain that they were more than ready for it, otherwise they would not have been there.

Finally, the zero-hour had arrived, and barely a second had passed before the stars before them seemed to twist around in a swirl, and when they straightened out again, a massive, planet-shaped object had appeared directly in front of them, and it only grew bigger as it slowly drew closer. When it finally stopped, it was still just close enough for everyone to see that the object was not just planet-shaped, but practically the same size as a planet as well, and then, the object slowly began to shift and alter itself much like any of the Transformers would they were changing between their bipedal and alt modes, until it finally had reconfigured itself into the dreaded enemy that they had all assembled together to fight against; the being that all Transformers knew to be evil incarnate and the ultimate pinnacle of darkness that stood as the equal and opposite of Primus himself: Unicron the Chaos Bringer.

If one had been expecting the fleet to open fire and send out all of their troops at once the minute Unicron had appeared, they had likely ended up very disappointed, because that is not what they had done at all, and if any of them had any thoughts of doing so due to any feelings of fear, they were all reassured when Optimus and Kira, and the captains of the five lead ships for Earth's fleet told them to take it nice and steady. When they finally saw the largest swarm of Decepticons, Terrorcons, HorseMan mobile suits, and Predacon drones any of them had ever seen before finally come flying out of Unicron, none of the various ship captains needed any more prompting to give the order that they had been waiting to give. "FIRE!"

The minute that one word had been shouted on the bridge of many ships, the sky was lit up with the beams that accompanied the main cannons of the _Eternal_ , the _Seraphim_ , the _Minerva_ , the _Kusanagi_ , and the _Omega III_ , along with a powerful energon blast from the cannons of Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus' vehicle modes, and it was all any of the enemy forces could do to avoid any of these blasts before they were caught in them. All of the Decepticon leaders that came out managed to avoid being hit, but the vast majority of the Terrorcons and Predacon drones was a different story, and the same could also be said for the Decepticon Vehicons as well, because a good deal of them were completely wiped out by the blasts, and since those blasts were laced with Silver Energon, the Terrorcons were all completely taken out, be they human or Transformer. That did not mean that there were not any left at all, but everyone that had come to defend Cybertron had already known it would not be that easy to eliminate such a large bulk of the enemy force. "All ships, please launch mobile suits and Autobot Forces now," Lacus commanded from her seat on the _Eternal_ 's bridge, proving that point perfectly once the blasts had completely faded.

An instant later, as the ships were firing all of their other weapons at the oncoming enemies, the Gundam Team and the Autobots came racing out of whatever ships they had each been stationed on, with a great deal of other mobile suit and Transformer forces following right behind them. Some of the greatest examples of this would be in the case of the various numbers of DOM Troopers and GOUF Igniteds that came flying out of the _Minerva_ and the _Eternal_ , along with the Murasames that were deployed from the _Kusanagi_ and the _Seraphim_ , and various Autobot forces that were deployed from just about every other ship, including the Junkions and Headmasters that came soaring into action from their own vessels. If one had been able to see so many different Transformers and mobile suits flying out of these ships, be they Autobots, Gundams, or otherwise, they would find any doubts they had about this being the largest fleet in the history of the universe suddenly vanish.

Of course, not everyone had launched at once, because one particular pilot paused before doing so in order to contact the bridge of the ship he was on for something very important. "Hey, Miriallia," Dearka said over the comm.

"Yes, what is it? Is something wrong," Miriallia asked, completely unaware of what her boyfriend was calling her for.

After a short pause, Dearka said four words that no one had been expecting at a moment like this at all. "Will you marry me?"

The resulting shock was apparent on everyone's faces as everyone on the _Seraphim_ 's bridge who could immediately turned to where Miriallia was sitting, seeing a brilliant blush on her face once they did, leading each of them to start gaining amused or knowing smirks as a result, including Natarle. "A combat operation like this isn't really the best time to be asking someone such things," Natarle tried to admonish the Gundam pilot, but the smile on her face and hint of amusement in her tone made that effort a complete fail.

"Well considering who we're talking about here, I don't think it's really that surprising he would do something like that now, of all times," Sai teased in response, earning similarly teasing nods of agreement from everyone else, other than the girl who had just been asked the big question.

Miriallia on the other hand could not, for the life of her, get her blush to go down at all, and her efforts to give a retort to any of the others' remarks were just as futile. Finally, she just gave up trying to talk to them and turned her attention to the blonde who had started the whole thing. "You jerk! Why'd you have to ask that right now, when you could end up dying today," Miriallia snapped at Dearka.

"Well I was going to ask you later on anyway, but if you really think I might end up dying today, then you can at least let me die without any regrets," Dearka shrugged, jokingly. "More importantly though, I'm not hearing you say 'no'."

Miriallia was not sure if it was possible, but she was now certain that her face had turned a whole new shade of red at that remark. After shaking herself out of it, she finally replied, "Come back from this alive, and then ask me again, alright?"

"Roger that," Dearka saluted with a soft tone of voice that was surprisingly tender and sweet for him, and he then joined the others in heading out into the action.

After they had launched from their ships, Kira and Athrun immediately combined their machines together to form the Infinite Freedom, with Shinn and Rey combining as well, this time with the Grand Destiny as the lower half of the machine while the Liberator was on top, and the team all took point on the assault against Unicron with Optimus and his own team doing the same right alongside them. What followed was a storm of battle the likes of which that the humans of Earth could just barely compare to the final battles of their previous two wars, and even then, both the Battle of Jachin Due and the Battle of Messiah still paled in comparison to this. Everywhere you looked there were battles raging, ships firing everything they had in their arsenals to keep enemy forces from approaching Cybertron, and amidst all of that, they were all sparing whatever they could to target Unicron as he made his slow, yet somehow still fast approach towards the metal planet they were defending. None of their efforts against Unicron really did much of anything, but when Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus assumed their robot modes and began targeting Unicron with everything they had, some of the troops defending Cybertron could have sworn that the Chaos Bringer had actually flinched a little under the two's combined assault.

If Unicron had indeed done so, he did not let it slide for long, because he after being struck by the most powerful attacks that Omega and Maximus had, he turned a great deal of his attention onto the two titans, swiping the arm that held his massive, spike-covered sword at both them and anything within his vicinity as he did. When the two managed to avoid the weapon, he then swung his spiky shield at the two as well, taking out any who were unfortunate enough to fall into the path of said shield as he did, and that struck a powerful blow to Omega's chest, knocking him into Fortress Maximus as a result. Thankfully, the two were able to regain their balance and right themselves quickly enough, but before they could attempt another attack, Unicron's sword had retracted into his arm and he raised his massive hand towards the two, unleashing a powerful storm of Dark Energon Lightning from his palm the moment it was facing them. When the blast struck them, both Omega and Maximus were unable to stop the screams of pain that had come about, just as they were unable to keep themselves from being blown away from the battlefield until they ended up crashing down on Cybertron's surface, much to everyone's horror.

Thankfully, they had only crashed into three or four of the defense fleet's ships as they were sent crashing down onto Cybertron, but everyone was far more concerned about the two titans that had just been taken down by Unicron like they were barely more than a pair of annoying insects. "Ratchet, Cerebros, can either of you hear me," Aisha shouted into her comm. from aboard the _Eternal_ , knowing that Cerebros was part of Fortress Maximus and that Ratchet had volunteered to remain aboard Omega for the battle in case something went wrong for the massive Autobot.

Ratchet could only groan in slight pain for a moment, but after checking himself over, he confirmed that the only real pain he currently had to deal with at the moment was a headache, and he quickly replied, "I'm fine, Aisha. I'm checking over Omega's systems now."

"Cerebros here, I'm afraid that Fortress Maximus' main body has suffered severe damage. It'll take a great deal of time and energon to repair it before it's even close to being battle ready again," the leader of the Headmasters reported.

"Just do what you can, Cerebros. We're going to need every advantage we can get in this fight," Ultra Magnus told him after swinging the Forge of Solus Prime through an attacking Vehicon, before he turned to fire one of his arm blasters at a charging Terrorcon, eliminating it from the fight the minute that the blast had struck its target.

"Damage severe. Diverting all power to self-repair functions. Estimated time to repair completion: uncertain," Omega reported.

When he heard his old friend say that, Ratchet immediately radioed in once more and said, "I'm going to do what I can to speed up Omega's recovery. Just make sure you keep the enemy from breaking through the line and off of both me and Cerebros until we're able to rejoin you."

"Understood, but try and make it as fast as you can. We might need you up on the _Omega III_ if you can't get Omega back into the action fast enough," Kira told Ratchet.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that Strongarm will be able to handle things up on the ship for now," Ratchet reassured Kira. Of course, that did not mean he was completely confident that they would win without Omega's help. If Unicron was able to take down both Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus, then he could only pray that his friends would survive the onslaught they were now facing.

* * *

On another area of the battlefield, some of the warriors fighting to defend Cybertron were still a little shell-shocked by the fact that both Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus were taken down so easily and at such an early point in the battle at that, right to the point where they almost missed an incoming swarm of Decepticons heading for them. This group was mostly comprised of the Ultracons that were taking a direct part in the battle, and as such, one particular Decepticon medic soon found himself doing what he could to defend himself from his old partner's hammer before it could cause any harm to him or his finish. "I don't want to fight you, Breakdown," Knockout shouted as he moved this way and that to avoid said Decepticon's hammer.

"You should have thought of that before you betrayed your kind," Breakdown snarled as he swung at the rather vain medic, only to become shocked when Knockout actually managed to catch the hammer in his hands. Such a thing did not matter though, as Breakdown managed to arm his shoulder cannon and land a strong blast on Knockout's front a second later, sending the red Ultracon flying back with a few scratches on his front.

Surprisingly, Knockout did not seem to pay the damage to his finish even the slightest bit of attention, but instead, just leveled his friend with a determined glare as he said, "You can't seriously be buying what Galvatron and that parasite Le Creuset are selling, can you? Think about what they've done so far and what they're planning to do. They killed Starscream for getting in their way, and they're planning on destroying anything in the galaxy, be it because they don't like the place, or for some other reason that only they could understand, and they're doing all of this as servants of Unicron, the Chaos Bringer! Do you understand, Breakdown? You are fighting with the devil himself! That's not why we joined the Decepticons!"

Breakdown had to admit that Knockout had a point. He honestly did not like the fact that they had been working to revive the ultimate evil in all Transformers history, and the fact that Galvatron and Le Creuset had been taking actions that many of the Decepticons would often question until they ended up falling victim to one of their current lords and masters' wrath did not really help with his confidence. If he had a choice, he would gladly join his partner in betraying the Decepticons, but there was just one small problem. "I don't have a choice. Being a Decepticon is all I know now," Breakdown stated as he prepared his cannon to fire again.

"Fine then. Be a Decepticon, but you could at least do so by helping us defeat the mockery that Galvatron and his pet have turned them into," Knockout snapped.

That made Breakdown stop and think for a minute, because that was something he had not considered before, and after thinking about it for a few more minutes, he immediately spun around and fired his shoulder cannon at one of the nearest Terrorcons. The blast caused the beast to be split in half, but unfortunately, it was still alive, at least until Bulkhead suddenly swooped in and blasted it apart with his arm blaster. The Wrecker immediately locked his gaze with Breakdown, both of them sizing each other up in the way old enemies with so much history like the two of them could, until Breakdown suddenly charged in and smashed apart a HorseMan mobile suit that had attempted to attack Bulkhead from behind. Seeing his old rival take such action, Bulkhead looked to Knockout to confirm what he had started to suspect, and immediately received a nod from said Ultracon in reply.

With that confirmation, Bulkhead turned back to Breakdown and said, "Don't think that just because we're working together for now things between us are finally settled."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Breakdown nodded in understanding, silently agreeing to have one final match with Bulkhead to settle their old rivalry one day, before all three charged back into the battle to take on the enemy forces that were about to come down on them.

On another end of the battlefield, Quicksilver and the two Seeker brothers were beginning to be overrun, even with Jetfire and Jetstorm backing them up, but they were not so swept up in the storm of battle that they had gone unnoticed by the last member of the Seeker Siblings that were still alive. "You traitors," Slipstream shouted as she made a dive straight for her brothers, arm blades ready to strike them down the minute she was close enough.

"Said the glitch that just scoffed at our brother's murder like it was nothing," Thundercracker retorted as he opened fire on his sister, with Sky Warp doing the same seconds later.

"Perhaps we should let them deal with their family issues on their own," Quicksilver suggested to the two Aerialbots.

"No arguments here mate," Jetfire agreed as he turned his attention elsewhere.

"Still, we might need something that can help turn the tides now that the big guys are down," Jetstorm commented.

"I may not have something that can compare in terms of size, but I do think that what I have up my servos could help a little," Quicksilver nodded as he turned to a certain area of the enemy lines and tapped his comm. link. "Quicksilver to Roadkill. The Speedway is open for demolition, so go nuts like only a real road-rager can."

The two brothers were both completely thrown for a loop at the odd phrase that Quicksilver just used, but it quickly became much clearer when a large amount of the Vehicons and HorseMan mobile suits suddenly went up in a brilliant blaze of glory that could only have rivaled something that the Wreckers had pulled off on one of their more high-risk missions. A few seconds later, Roadkill came swooping over to their position with a grin on his face, showing that he had something to do with the explosion that had just occurred and he was proud of it, too. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to make the call, Quicksilver. Seriously, you have any idea how long I've been waiting to do that? Just be glad that the setup you told me to use worked just like you said it would, otherwise, I'd be giving a few more harsh choice words," Roadkill commented once he was alongside the three and firing on the enemies around them.

Jetfire and Jetstorm could only look between the two Ultracons for a minute until they finally fixated awestruck gazes on the triple-changer of the two, showing the very thing that Jetfire voiced a second later. "Okay, I'm definitely impressed."

"That makes two of us," Silverbolt called out as he came swooping in to join in on the action, guns blazing as he switched between his vehicle mode and robot mode at an astonishing rate. "Hey kid, if you ever think about becoming a full-time 'Bot, I can guarantee that there'll be a place for you on the Aerialbots with us," the Aerialbot leader informed Quicksilver with a smile.

"Really," Quicksilver gasped in surprise. "But I thought that aside from Autobot Vehicons, the Aerialbots were just you five, you know, the guys who formed Superion."

"Well not always," Jetstorm shrugged. "The Seeker Siblings used to be part of the team too, before they joined up with the Decepticons back when they were being led by Megatron, and besides, the fact that you were trained by Starscream definitely says something in your favor, since he was one of the best of us back in those days."

Quicksilver had to smile a little more upon hearing that. He was a bit upset that his late master had never told him about such facts, but all the same, he was still much more pleased with the fact that the best, ace flyers in the Autobots would actually offer him a place with them. The good feelings were quickly abolished when the battle that could be considered a family feud came rushing past them, as Sky Warp teleported around Slipstream in an attempt to get a good bead on her while Thundercracker kept his brother covered. "Maybe we should talk about this more at another time," Quicksilver suggested.

"Good thinking," Silverbolt agreed, having just spotted the Combaticons entering the fray and combining into Bruticus. "Think you guys can handle things here?"

"No worries; we've got this," Roadkill reassured, with Quicksilver smirking in confirmation.

Silverbolt nodded in response to this, and immediately turned to his teammates as he gave the order that would allow his team to better even things out for them. "Aerialbots, combine into Superion!"

An instant later, the five Aerialbots had joined together in their combined form, and Superion was once again battling it out with Bruticus, fully intending to end their long battle for good this time. Such sentiments would not be done so easily, as Devastator and Scorpnok came racing over to the area when they saw the two beginning to slug it out. Thankfully, they did not get far enough to do more than attempt a few distracting shots that almost allowed Bruticus to gain the upper hand, had it not been for Superion's quick thinking and reactions, because they were not the only ones who came racing to one of the two battling titans' aid. The Protectobots and the Abomination Clan were quick to join into the fray as well, with their respective leaders giving the order for each to combine together as well. A second later, Defensor and Abominus were on the battlefield and clashing with Devastator and Scorpnok, respectively, leaving Superion to settle things with Bruticus once and for all.

Of course, even though a total of six, titanic Transformers were slugging it out, somehow, the area they were fighting in was not where most of the destruction was taking place, at least in terms of Decepticon forces that were being taken down. No, that area would be just about any area that the Dinobots and the Predacons were fighting in, but mostly Grimlock and Predaking, and everyone was completely comfortable with letting both the two groups and their leaders do their thing uninhibited and without any intentions of trying to provide them with support. They all knew very well that if they tried to help so much as Grimlock or Predaking in their 'Con-smashing efforts, they would just be getting in the way and end up trying to make sure that they were not accidentally hit by either of the two's rampages. That did not mean that no one ever ventured into either of those areas at all, though, as evidence when the Diamond Akatsuki suddenly found itself flying up next to Predaking when its own battle efforts forced it in that direction.

"Before this had all begun, Grimlock had boasted that he would destroy more of these vile 'Cons than I would. I believe he is sorely mistaken," Predaking remarked to the blonde who was piloting the diamond and gold machine after he had blasted apart another few pairs of HorseMans.

"Don't you think you should be taking this a little more seriously, P.K.," Cagalli pointed out as she directed some of the Diamond Akatsuki's DRAGOONs towards a few Terrorcons, throwing them off balance long enough for her to finish them off with the machine's beam cannons.

"A true Predacon takes every battle seriously, Cagalli-Cagalli Yula Athha Zala," Predaking retorted with a smirk, which he punctuated by blasting an Insecticon drone that had made a rather pathetic attempt to sneak up behind him, at least by Predaking's standards.

At another point on the battlefield, a similar conversation was being carried out between Yzak, Dearka, and Grimlock, with the main difference being that Grimlock was not pausing in his thrashing, slashing, and bashing of every form of Decepticon that he was coming across while he spoke. "Predaking thought he'd smash more 'Cons than Grimlock?! Stupid dragon 'Bot," Grimlock roared as he slashed his sword through Insecticons, Terrorcons, and Predacon drones alike, not noticing the HorseMans that were coming up from behind him until the Verde Buster had blasted them away, leaving the Blu Duel to finish them off.

"Hey, less raging about your rivalry and more focusing on the battle at hand, Dino-boy," Yzak snapped as he redirected his machine so that it would block a barrage of energon beam blasts that were being thrown at him.

"Besides that, I'm pretty sure that both me and Yzak have taken down more of these guys than you or Predaking," Dearka added, braggingly. Of course, his face fell a little when he noticed a large swarm of Insecticons heading their way. "Oh great; more of the bugs. I'm starting to agree with Miriallia when she said that she hated dealing with Insecticons."

"Humph, little bugs can do their worst. Makes no difference to Grimlock," the Dinobot leader scoffed before he blasted forward, leaving Yzak and Dearka to fend off the enemies that had already converged on their position. "Dinobots KICK BUTT," Grimlock roared as he charged, and his team was soon falling in alongside and behind him in his charge. Moments later, the Dinobots were tearing through the Insecticon hordes like no tomorrow, be it in their robot modes or in their dino modes, but unfortunately, assuming the latter was not always the wisest of choices for most of them, since, aside from Swoop, most of the Dinobots alt modes were better suited for ground-based combat, so they had to be exceptionally careful whenever they were in said modes, unless they wanted to be thrown completely off balance. Surprisingly, Grimlock was the first of the Dinobots to falter in his step while in his T-Rex mode, and as a result, he ended up landing himself right in the path of a number of Terrorcons and HorseMans, which were quickly swarming on his position. Seeing this, Grimlock could only say one thing as he returned to robot mode once again. "Me, Grimlock might need new strategy."

Grimlock then readied his sword for the oncoming storm he was about to face from the undead beings and enemy mobile suits, but it ended up never reaching him, since just about all of said enemies were suddenly engulfed in a massive stream of fire. Once the fire blast had dispersed, Grimlock turned to see Predaking floating there in his beast mode, with his wings flapping strongly and a smug grin on his animalistic face, drawing a mild scowl out of Grimlock in response. "That only counts as one," Grimlock grumbled to the Predacon leader.

"If you really wish to be a sore loser about it," Predaking shrugged once he had returned to robot mode, earning him a low growl from Grimlock in response before they both turned to start tearing through more enemies.

* * *

From the bridge of the _Seraphim_ , things seemed to be going about as well as expected, even with the early loss of Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus, at least in Natarle's opinion. Then again, that was not really saying much, because no battle ever went as initially planned, and already their biggest guns were knocked out of the fight. Thankfully, the various combiner teams had come together and assumed their combined forms, but they were now locked in battle with the enemy combiners and Scorpnok, so there was little chance of them being able to create an opening for the team that needed to get into Unicron so easily, or even any time soon. Right now, she was just counting her blessings that they had been lucky enough to not lose anyone that was extremely vital to the mission's overall success. That was not to say that they had not lost anyone at all, because there were always at least a few casualties in such a battle, but she was mostly thinking of the main warriors in their forces such as the members of the Gundam Team and the Autobots who would be going into Unicron once they had a chance.

Unfortunately, their luck was about to take a turn for the worst when Sai's scanners picked up something that he did not like even looking at, let alone having to report. "Captain, I'm picking up a major energy spike coming from Unicron. Much more massive than any of the ones that have been consistent with anything he's done so far."

"Explanation," Natarle requested.

"…I don't have any," Sai finally said after checking his scanners and running some ideas through his head for a minute.

"Captain! Look on the main monitor," Neumann suddenly shouted, drawing everyone to see what the helmsman had noticed.

The main monitor was currently displaying the titan of titans that they were fighting against, and from what they could tell, it looked as if the armor his chest had begun to split open, revealing what appeared to be a massive cannon inside of it, and even from a distance, it was clear that the weapon was charging up with energy in preparation to fire. Natarle did not even want to think about the kind of damage a weapon like that could do to their forces, let alone what it could do to whatever ended up unfortunate enough to be it by the blast, and as such, she did not hesitate in her next order. "Order all ships and fighters to take evasive action! Tell Cybertron's ground forces to increase defensive shields for an orbital strike until they're at their absolute maximum! GET EVERYONE THE HELL OUT OF THAT THING'S LINE OF FIRE NOW!"

"Yes ma'am," Miriallia immediately responded as she relayed the messaged to everyone she could as quickly as possible, hoping that anyone she was not able to contact in time would be able to get clear before it was too late.

"Captain, Unicron is firing that thing, now," Sai suddenly exclaimed, and everyone could only brace themselves for impact in case the blast ended up directed at them while praying that anyone who was in the line fire could get clear fast enough.

* * *

A vast majority of the fleet had received Miriallia's message of warning and had scrambled to get clear of the cannon's line of fire as it continued charging up, hoping that they would not be caught in the blast, and thankfully, a good deal of the people who had not received the message had noticed Unicron preparing his next attack and moved to get out of the way as fast as they could. Sadly, not everyone had noticed fast enough, and among those who had not noticed quickly enough, were a pair of Z.A.F.T. Gundam pilots whose machines were currently combined together into one. Rey had actually just armed the Powerlinx Liberator with the Grand Destiny's Ragnarok Cannon in preparation to fire said weapon when he noticed what Unicron was doing, and the minute he had done so, he immediately redirected the combined Gundams so that it could fly to safety, but unfortunately, he had not done so fast enough, and so, when the cannon fired, it was clearly heading straight for him and Shinn. There was no way for the two to escape as far as Rey could see, until he thought of something that would likely ensure that at least one of them would.

"Shinn, disengage the link-up, now," Rey shouted.

"What?! Rey are you crazy," Shinn demanded, but he did not receive any answer, as Rey forced the two to split apart and then positioned the Liberator so that it was behind the Grand Destiny. Using every ounce of strength and thrust that his machine had, Rey immediately blasted forward at the Liberator's top speed until they were both just at the edge of the blast that Unicron had fired. Once they had reached that point, Rey pushed his friend's machine forward as hard as it could, sending the Grand Destiny flying away and clear of the blast before it could hit. While Shinn had been saved from being hit by Unicron's attack though, Rey was not so lucky, as a good half of the Liberator ended up being caught in the beam as a result, eliciting a cry of pain from the pilot of the machine when it hit, much to Shinn's horror.

"Rey! Rey, can you hear me," Shinn shouted as he raced back over to his friend once the blast had dissipated, barely paying any mind to the fact that the blast had left a scorch on Cybertron's surface that was visible even up at their current position, or how everyone was now redoubling their efforts as a result of losing a good deal of ships in their fleet. Thankfully, the _Omega III_ , the _Minerva_ , the _Seraphim_ , and every other major ship that had taken point as a leader in this confrontation had managed to escape being harmed, but Shinn could not have cared less right then, because all that mattered was that his friend had likely been hurt due to the actions he had taken to save him.

Eventually, Shinn received a reply, and while it was filled with static, he could still hear Rey's voice. The message that he had received though did not really fill him which much confidence in the way of Rey's condition. "I…I'm okay, Shinn…at least for the most part. I can't say the same…for the Liberator though," Rey coughed in reply. Shinn then heard his friend let out a groan of pain before he said, "Actually, maybe I'm not quite that okay…my left side hurts like hell…and I can't feel one of my arms, or either one of my legs."

"Just hang on, buddy. I'm gonna get you back to the _Minerva_ so you can get some medical treatment," Shinn tried to reassure his friend, but the panic in his voice was far too apparent for it to have mattered.

"No…I can't…I can't leave just yet," Rey argued. "We've still got…a job to do."

"You're in no condition to help anymore! Just let me get you out of here," Shinn protested.

"I may not be able to join you and the others in your main assault against Unicron…but that doesn't mean…I can't do something to help," Rey groaned as he hit the Liberator's thrusters as hard as he could at the moment, blasting away from the Grand Destiny before Shinn could say anything in protest, and flying right towards the center of the Decepticon lines. Before he got too far away though, Rey hit a certain set of controls that ejected a familiar beam of red energy from the Liberator's chest, which then split into four different beams that circled around the Grand Destiny for a moment until they finally came back together again and phased into the machine's chest. "I leave my power…to grant a combination spark to you, Shinn…I know you'll…use it wisely," Rey groaned, and with that, he blasted out of Shinn's reach completely.

Rey's approach did not go unnoticed by his old foe, Ro Co Zane, and his genetic brother wasted no time in attempting to stop Rey's approach however he could. Despite whatever Co Zane threw at the Liberator though, the machine just kept going forward, much to his shock, and that was when it finally struck him as to what Rey was doing, and he was soon charging right towards Rey himself. When the two machines collided, Co Zane immediately started trying to push back against the Liberator in an attempt to stop its advance, but Rey did not let that stop him, and instead just put every ounce of power he could into his machine's thrusters, propelling it forward. "What the hell do you think you're doing," Co Zane demanded. "Do you really think this will make a difference? You'll just end up disappearing completely like dust in the wind!"

"Even that was true, don't think I'm going to be going down alone, because I'll be taking you and as many of your allies as possible with me, bastard," Rey shouted in the best retort he could manage at the moment, all the while continuing to head straight for the point of the enemy lines that they needed to create an opening at. Once he was close enough, Rey closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief as he activated the one feature he had hoped he would never have to activate on any mobile suit he piloted: the self-destruct system.

What happened next was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. A massive explosion immediately lit up the dark expanse of Space that lay before the defenders of Cybertron and right in the center of the Decepticon lines, taking out a great deal of the enemy forces as a result. It did not matter if they Decepticons, HorseMan, Predacon Drones, Insecticons, or Terrorcons; if they had been close enough to so much as the edge of the blast, then they were lucky to have escaped with so much as half of their bodies intact, otherwise, they were all gone in a matter of moments. This sudden explosion had drawn everyone's attention towards it, halting many of the various battles for the briefest of times so that the combatants could stare in shock at what had happened before they commenced fighting again, and when the Autobots and Gundam Team had laid eyes on this massive ball of light, they all knew that it could only have been something that was caused by an Energon Reactor Core overloading and then being detonated. Out of all of them though, only one person knew right away who was at the center of that explosion, and he was immediately crying out the name of his friend, his brother in anguish and sorrow.

* * *

On the _Minerva_ , everyone had not stopped staring at where the explosion of an Energon Reactor Core had occurred until one of the readouts at Meyrin's station suddenly let out a single, drawn out beep that only had one meaning to it. The younger Hawke sibling was instantly working as frantically as possible to disprove what her readouts were telling her, but no matter what she tried, there was no denying the facts that were now lying bare before her eyes. "Meyrin, what is it," Talia asked in a soft, quiet tone that was silently pleading for the young woman to not tell her what she was already expecting to hear.

Meyrin only hesitated for a minute before she finally answered her captain's question. "The…the Liberator…I've lost all signals from it. It's gone."

Talia's gasp of horror was probably the most noticeable out of everyone's, but the feeling of dread that the _Minerva_ 's bridge crew had gained was shared by them all, even as their captain started to question her CIC further in the hopes that the pilot of said machine might have made it out in time. "Are you getting any kind of signal from Rey? From his suit? Anything at all?"

Meyrin wanted so badly to tell her captain that there was something, but she could not do it, not even as a lie. "I'm sorry, Captain. There isn't any sign at all. I'm afraid he's…he's…"

Poor Meyrin could not have brought herself to finish that sentence even if she wanted to, because she was soon letting her tears fall in full at that point, yet somehow was still keeping herself from sobbing uncontrollably, and if it were not for her training, Talia would have been racing over to comfort the girl as best as she could while letting her own tears fall as well. After all, Rey had been like a son to her, just as everyone under her command had felt like something of an extended family, especially in the case that had served with her for so long now, so hearing that one of her best pilots was now gone was the furthest thing from easy that one could imagine. "Damn it…Damn it all," Talia muttered through the tears that had managed to slip through despite her best efforts to keep them at bay. When she raised her head forward again, her eyes had narrowed in anger, and it was clear that Talia Gladys would be out for revenge against the monster that was Unicron for the rest of this fight. "Prepare to fire everything we've got! We're taking that bastard down no matter what happens!"

* * *

Even though Rey's efforts had indeed created an opening for the infiltration team, none of them had started heading towards it as quickly as they probably should have. Most of them were far more concerned about Shinn's current condition after he had forced to watch his best friend sacrifice himself in the way that he did. "Shinn," Luna softly called out to her boyfriend once she had flown up next to him, trying her best to keep her voice even despite the tears that were falling down her face.

What Shinn said in response though was not what she had expected. "They're gonna pay. The damn bastards…Unicron, Galvatron, Le Creuset…every last one of these bastards are gonna pay for this," Shinn roared angrily.

"And we'll make sure of that, Shinn, but we need to keep a level head here, otherwise, Rey's sacrifice will have been completely worthless," Kira told the younger pilot.

Shinn would have given a very harsh retort in response to that had he not known that Kira was right, so he just took a deep, calming breath and nodded in response before moving to fly forward in formation with the Pure Impulse, the Infinite Freedom, and the Diamond Akatsuki, with Optimus, Arcee, Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Smokescreen, and Springer falling in just behind them. Seeing the team making their way forward caused a few red flags to be raised for Waltfeld and Magnus, but only the former found the courage to give any voice on the matter. "Hey you guys, you're not seriously still going in there, are you? You're already one man down, and you haven't even gone in yet. At least let one of us come with you," the Desert Tiger tried to say.

"Sorry Mister Waltfeld, but that's not an option anymore," Kira denied. "We're finishing this mission now, and we can't afford to be shy even one warrior out here to help ensure that we're able to do our job inside."

"Kira is correct. Unicron must be stopped, no matter the cost," Optimus agreed, effectively silencing any other protests anyone would have given at that point.

"In that case, we'll cover you until you get in there," Yzak shouted as he the Joule Team came in to flank the group that would be heading into Unicron, with the Star Force Strike and the Saviour falling in to do the same just seconds later.

There was not any time for anyone to voice any thanks to Yzak and the rest of the team that was now flanking Optimus and Kira's group, as the enemy was quickly moving to either close the hole that Rey had made or stop the team in their advance, and they were all soon firing everything they had at the approaching enemies. It eventually came to the point where Luna had to use her Cyber Key power to activate her machine's Heavy Beam Gatling Cannons in order to keep a path clear for them while Cagalli used the Diamond Akatsuki's Psyco-Frame to summon the few surviving DRAGOONs that had once been deployed by Rey's machine, along with a few enemy ones to help assist her in the matter as well, but eventually, they managed to keep a clear path after Shinn unleashed his Grand Destiny Breaker in a surge of power that was unlike anything he had used in the attack before now, which was soon followed by Optimus releasing a massive wave of energy from the Star Saber. As they were making their final approach, Athrun glanced back at his friends before he commented, "There's no guarantee that they'll be able to make it with us inside there, you know."

Everyone immediately acknowledged Athrun's words with an agreeable silence, until Optimus ended up breaking it, saying "Not to worry. I have something that should help them to even the tides of this battle for the moment."

After he said that, the last Prime quickly stored the Star Saber onto his back and tapped a set of controls on his arm at a furious speed. Once he had finished his work, he spun around and fired what appeared to be a beam of energy from where the Matrix was stored in his chest, down to Cybertron's surface. A few minutes after that beam had disappeared, it seemed that nothing was going to happen, until the sound of large rocket engines reached everyone's ears, leading them to turn towards the source of the sound and then gasp in awe at what they saw. There, rising up from Cybertron's surface and into the midst of the battle that was raging above the metal planet, was perhaps the largest Transformer anyone had ever seen, not counting Unicron. For the most part, this massive titan's armor was colored in a faint silver with black on many points of his armor, and it was clear that he held a very impressive arsenal of weapons at his disposal just from the sight of the cannons that were on both of his arms and shoulders, and the Autobot sigil could be seen glowing in a brilliant red on the right side of his chest. Once this massive Autobot was close enough, he swung his massive hand at the nearest enemy forces, destroying them all before he could enclose them in his fist, and said one simple sentence. " **Metroplex** heeds the call of the last Prime."

"Whoa," was the only thing any of the humans could think of to say, while anyone who was not from Cybertron just openly gaped at the sight before them before their attention was forcefully drawn back to the battle in one way or another.

"That is…definitely something Mayu would want a picture of," Shinn commented.

"Metroplex, provide whatever assistance you can to the fleet defending Cybertron, but be careful of the ships and warriors that are also fighting for our world," Optimus ordered the massive Autobot.

"Understood," Metroplex replied before aiming his two cannons forward to unleash a large blast of energon beams at the enemy, leaving the team to continue onward.

"Yeah, that'll definitely be a big help once we've gone inside," Athrun smiled in slight relief.

"Well then, let's stop sitting here and get moving," a new voice suddenly said, drawing everyone's attention to the side to see that Bumblebee had joined up with them sometime during their approach towards Unicron.

"Bee? What're you doing here," Arcee demanded. She was not unhappy to see her boyfriend, but now was not really the best place or time for them to meet up.

"Waltfeld had a point when he said that you guys were a man down before you had even gone inside Unicron, so I'm going with you, and don't even think about trying to stop me," Bumblebee challenged in reply.

Kira just smirked at his friend in response and said, "I wouldn't dream of it, Bumblebee."

With nothing else for any of them to say, the team blasted forward, having seen that their best way into Unicron at the moment was through the opening in his armor that using his chest cannon had provided for them, and soon enough, they had all disappeared into the planet-sized Transformer. When they had done so, everyone shared the same thoughts that towards the group, but only Elita One had voiced the sentiment to the one member that she cared about the most in said group, knowing full well, that there was nothing else any of them could say at that point. "Be careful Orion."

* * *

 ** _Rey: YOU KILLED ME?!_**

 ** _AN: Did not! You did that to yourself after Unicron nearly blew you up, or weren't you paying attention?_**

 ** _Shinn: Yes he was, and he was also paying attention to the fact that it wouldn't have happened at all if you did not write it that way._**

 ** _AN:...Okay, yeah, fair point, but let me just explain a few things here. I'll admit, I did not like having to kill Rey off, since that kinda makes me seem like I just let him stick around after Destiny Sentinels so that he could die later on, but I want you all to keep in mind that I didn't kill him off halfway through the story, but in the final stages of it, so please go easy on me for that._**

 ** _Rey: How does that make it any better?!_**

 ** _AN: Because at least this way you went out in a blaze of glory instead of dying in some off-screen adventure like I had originally planned on having you doing._**

 ** _Rey and Shinn: WHAT?!_**

 ** _AN: Yeah, sorry guys, but I'm afraid that in order for the story to end right, Rey would've ended up dying after a while no matter what. You'll understand why later when we come to that point. Can we move on now? Yes? Then let me do so! We've got other things to address, so if you don't mind..._**

 ** _Ahem, anyways, I admit that I wanted this chapter to be in the following format: Unicron gets located, everyone goes to Cybertron to ready defenses, battle begins, end on the team getting inside big, bad, and ugly. That was the original format, and the more I thought about it, the more leaving it at just that seemed...meh, so of course I threw in some romantic moments that featured all of our favorite Gundam SEED couples. Also, yeah, Dearka practically pulled the same thing on Miriallia that Shinn and Luna pulled in Destiny Sentinels when they finally confessed their feelings to each other. That is going to come back to bite him later once Shinn and Luna hear about it, I guarantee it._**

 ** _Finally, yes, all of you people who have been constantly asking for me to add him in, there he is: Metroplex has arrived just in time for the final push. Admittedly, I was not going to put the big guy in at all, at least not aside from when he showed up in the chapter that showed Lunamaria and Crosshairs' adventures in the universe of Transformers Cybertron, and most of that was because I felt that adding him in needed him to arrive at a major moment and in a big epic way. Adding him in here like I did was probably the closest we were going to get throughout this entire series, so how could I really resist? Besides, after having Omega Supreme and Fortress Maximus go down so early into things, and then leading the Autobot combiners to start duking it out with the Decepticon Combiners and Scorpnok, I needed to have at least one major heavy hitter in the action that wasn't being occupied with anything other than dealing with the masses and Unicron's assaults._**

 ** _Oh, and before I forget, yeah, Silver Energon has proved to be a big help so far, and we've now gotten two more additions to our side from the Decepticons, even though one was technically an Ultracon that had been working within the Decepticons as a spy...urgh, anyone else starting to think that there's one too many varieties of 'Cons in the Transformers series, and I just mean this story series, but in the Transformers series in general? I know, completely random thing, but it's something to think about, right? Well, maybe not right this second. After all, you guys have to move Onto the Preview! now..._**

 ** _As the storm of battle rages on above Cybertron, the team inside of Unicron is forced to split up in order to ensure that their mission succeeds. This leads Optimus Prime and Kira into their final confrontation with Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset. As was once said by both the last Prime and the Ultimate Coordinator the last time they had faced the two madmen, only one shall stand when the battle has ended, and when the battle reaches its ultimate peak, an incredible miracle is unleashed. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Chapter 32: Lighting Our Darkest Hour** ** _. End this nightmare once and for all Optimus Prime and Strike Freedom Gundam!_**

 ** _Oh yeah, the big final face-off and all kinds of other crazy is going down next time! For now though..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	32. Lighting Our Darkest Hour

_**AN: Well guys, it's here at last. The chapter that tells of the Autobots and Gundam Team's final battle against their greatest enemies, Unicron and the Decepticons. Who will win? Who will survive? What will happen once the smoke clears?**_

 _ **Kira: You know, if they want to know any of that, they're gonna have to read the chapter.**_

 _ **AN: I know that! I'm just trying to be dramatic and give it a little flare as we lead into the adventure. More importantly though, this is probably one of my longest chapters yet, so can we please keep this starting note short.**_

 _ **Optimus: I am alright with that.**_

 _ **Bumblebee: Same here, but this kinda means that we're just one chapter away from the adventure being over.**_

 _ **AN: Worry about that later. For now, let's roll out!**_

 _ **Oh, and readers, before I forget, you might want to be listening to "The Touch" by Stan Bush at a certain point in this chapter. Here's a hint, it'll be at a point during Optimus and Kira's big battle inside of Unicron. Now, let's roll out!**_

 ** _I do not own anything from any of either of the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story._**

* * *

 **Chapter 32: Lighting Our Darkest Hour**

At this point in time, it was safe to say that Unicron was certainly living up to his name as the Chaos Bringer, because that was exactly how one could describe the battle that was taking place just above Cybertron: complete chaos. It did not matter where you looked in this grand field of battle and destruction, for all you would see was this very thing at its finest, and while some areas were not as bad as others, they would still be classified as something that was a little closer to being controlled chaos than it would be a calm point in the most destructive storm ever seen before by anyone. Vehicons and Terrorcons were tearing through enemies with a ferocity that you would not normally expect from foot soldiers, mobile suits were exploding as they were dealt crippling damage or just flat out destroyed, Predacon drones were being ripped asunder by the true Predacons, Insecticons were being destroyed by the rampaging Dinobots, and those were just some of the first things one would notice on this grand stage in the theater of battle, assuming you had missed the massive Autobot, Metroplex tearing through any enemies that either dared to or were just unfortunate enough to fall into his crosshairs, excluding Unicron of course.

In other parts of the battlefield, you could easily see the other various combatants fighting to either drive their opponent back or just to try and break through the defensive lines that the other had formed, the latter of which mostly pertained to the battles that the Decepticon forces were fighting whenever they engaged the various ships blocking their path towards Cybertron, and no ship seemed to be fighting more ferociously than the _Minerva_. Not one of the defenders of the Transformer homeworld were questioning the reasoning behind the black Z.A.F.T. warship's newfound battle ferocity, because they all knew that it was all just in keeping with the ship's response to the death of Rey Za Burrel, who had been one of their best pilots and crewmembers for about as long as the ship had been in service. Still, even with the ferocity that the ships were throwing out at their enemies, they were not quite at the center of all the action.

Much of that honor actually fell to the leading Autobots and the Gundam pilots who had not just disappeared into Unicron in order to eliminate the Chaos Bringer once and for all. Even in the smaller cases such as that of Ironhide and Hound, who were mostly firing their best guns at the enemy from the deck of the _Omega III_ seemed to be a serious center of attention for the fighting, but it was still not quite as much so as the battles that had been either a long-time coming or which had lasted between two combatants for so long, such as the battle between Superion and Bruticus or the one between the Seeker brothers and their estranged sister. Everyone knew that the Seeker Siblings were not the most close-knit family, but it seemed that all it took for Thundercracker and Sky Warp to come together and fight against Slipstream was the death of their eldest brother, which Slipstream was continuing to spit at like it could not have happened sooner, and it showed with how well the two were working together to put their sister in her place. As for Superion, every blow he landed and every blast he managed to fire at Bruticus was a clear show of how he intended to end the Combaticons for good that day, settling the long-standing history that the two had once and for all. All-in-all, no one who had come to fight against the ultimate evil in all Transformers history and legend.

As he slashed through a few HorseMans that had tried to make a break for their defensive line, Yzak had to take a moment of pause while still firing his weapons at the enemy in order to really think about everything that had lead up to this moment. He knew that now was probably not the best time to be getting philosophical about life, but he just could not help himself from wondering just how they all ended up at this point in their lives. Before anything regarding Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, or any other thing involving Transformers or aliens in general, he had just been a Z.A.F.T. Red fighting to end a war in the PLANTs' favor, and he did not really give much thought to anything beyond following his orders since he believed that his superiors knew what was best when it came to defending their homeland. Well, he also wanted to take down the _Archangel_ and Strike Gundam, but that was beside the point. As he thought about all of this, he found himself wondering just where they all would have ended up if the Autobots and Decepticons had never come to Earth. Would he still have become who he was today? Would his friends who had survived so much up until now still be alive now? These things were all plaguing his mind to the point that it was nearly distracting for Yzak.

Proving this point, Yzak's thoughts had actually been so preoccupied by these ideas that he missed a Terrorcon and HorseMan closing in on him until they both suddenly went up in smoke due to a last minute intervention from the Rosso Aegis. "What're you doing, Yzak? This isn't the time to be daydreaming," Shiho scolded as she switched her machine into shooting mode so she could fire its more powerful weapons with better accuracy.

"I know that, obviously," Yzak snapped. "I just…I couldn't help wondering what would have happened to us if we never encountered anything from other worlds like the Transformers right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we did meet them and everything, but I can't help but wonder if we would still be fighting a battle like this if we hadn't, and just how things would have turned out without the Transformers around."

"Well I don't think any of us really want to think about that kind of thing too much at any point in time, but that's definitely not something I want to be thinking about right now," Dearka commented as he came up alongside them. "So how about we table the matter for after we win this thing."

"You're awfully confident that we'll win," Shiho noted.

"Well, I've got something that I need to do when this is over, so I can't afford to think that I won't survive. Besides, Optimus and Kira are both in there doing everything they can to stop that monster, and I doubt I need to tell you why I find that reassuring," Dearka shrugged.

"Yeah, I agree with that," Nicol added as he joined his friends, slashing through a nearby Predacon drone as he came before blasting an Insecticon that was about to jump Shiho. "When those two are together, anything suddenly doesn't just seem possible, it _becomes_ possible."

Yzak could only smirk in response to this before he scoffed, "Well don't think that means we can let them hog all of the glory here. We're gonna do everything we can to make sure these bastards don't get within so much as the smallest centimeter closer Cybertron than this. Joule Team, transform and slash in!"

Even though one or two of the members of said team ended up rolling their eyes at their leader's attempt at a battle cry, they still did not hesitate in following him in charging forward into battle once again, and their enthusiasm was shared by a good amount of the warriors fighting in other areas of the combat zone. Despite all this enthusiasm though, that did not detract from the fact that just as many people were worried about those who had just gone right into the heart of the beast before them.

* * *

No one on Kira and Optimus' team was ashamed to admit that they had gotten completely lost just seconds after they had landed inside of Unicron. The place was definitely not anything like what it had been back when Unicron's spark was trapped in Earth's core, a fact that was easily confirmed by the members of the group who had actually gone on that mission, but thankfully, they were not too worried about what staying in one place for too long would do to their wellbeing. The minute that they had gotten into Unicron, they all had let out a sigh of relief at the confirmation that the Silver Energon-enhanced shielding devices were working perfectly, making sure that none of them were weakened in anyway whatsoever, and now, all they had to do was figure out where they needed to go, and just what they would likely be up against along the way. Another thing that they were grateful for was that they had a way to avoid stumbling around the place like someone stumbling around in the dark without any light source at all; a method that they actually had to thank Soundwave for since he used it all the time for reconnaissance and spying.

Once they had found some good cover to hide in, Athrun had sent out Blast Blade to scout ahead and determine just where they currently were and where they needed to go, and since the little guy was so small, there was a very small chance that any of Unicron's defenses would react to him. Everyone was a bit skeptical about how well this idea would work until Athrun explained that whenever Blast Blade powerlinxed with the Infinite Justice, he also transferred whatever knowledge he had recently gathered before doing so to the Gundam's computer, making him a very great scouting partner. Bumblebee had acted like he had taken offense to that, but it was obvious that he was just messing with them when he did so. All they had to do now was wait for the little guy to get back and share what he had found.

As they were waiting, they found it very difficult to ignore the sounds of explosions coming from outside, all of which were no doubt from the battle that was taking place at that very moment. Whether the explosions and loud bangs they heard were the results of Unicron's attacks, their friends' attempts at attacking Unicron from outside, or something else, none of them were entirely sure that they wanted to know. Thinking about such things only made each of them wonder about what sort of state that their friends had started falling into since they left the battle to begin this all-important infiltration mission to take down Unicron from the inside, and many of the scenarios that they thought up were not all that pleasant to think about for even a second, if at all. Then again, with how long it seemed to be taking Athrun's Mini-Con partner to complete his mission and return to them, they found it a little difficult to think of much else besides that.

Thankfully, their anxieties were quickly put to rest and their waiting finally came to an end when Athrun spotted Blast Blade flying back towards them. Once he was close enough to the group, the little Mini-Con quickly transformed into robot mode and gave a few quick trills to them which everyone took to mean that he had succeeded. This was confirmed when Athrun replied, "Great work Blast Blade. Now, let's see what you found."

Blast Blade nodded with a quick trill before returning to vehicle mode and powerlinxing with the Infinite Justice so that he could transfer the information over to his partner. After he had done so, Athrun used his Gundam's optics to generate an image of Unicron that everyone could see that had four points highlighted as red dots. "Alright, this is our location here," Athrun said, indicating the red dot in the center, which was position halfway between Unicron's chest and stomach. "And according to Blast Blade, Unicron's spark chamber is this point up on the left most area at the center of Unicron's chest."

"What're those other locations that he highlighted then," Lunamaria inquired.

"According to Blast Blade, Unicron's spark chamber has a backup system that would keep him going long enough for it to recover, and that is this point up here, near his head," Athrun explained as he had the Infinite Justice point to the indicated area on the map. He then redirected the machine's indicating finger down to the right side of Unicron's torso and finished, "Also, the entrance to Unicron's spark chamber is sealed off by an impenetrable barrier, and the only way to get through it is by taking out the control system for it that's positioned at this location."

"Why do I get the feeling it won't be that easy to take out either one," Arcee asked.

"Because it won't be," Athrun replied. "Blast Blade also ran an analysis of those two areas and confirmed that if we want to really take down Unicron, then we need to make absolutely sure that those two areas stay down, and that means we would have to stay there and keep him from repairing any damage we inflict on either system. Plus, with the way the shielding controls are designed, even if we were to destroy them, the shield around the spark chamber would only be down for a few moments. Meaning someone would have to be right in front of them if they wanted to get in fast enough, so naturally there would be very little time to get from the shield controls to the spark chamber, and we would likely have to make sure the damage there sticks in case the shields don't go down after we've taken out Unicron's spark."

"I'm not liking where this seems to be going," Crosshairs moaned.

"Well you're gonna have to deal with it, because it's our only option. If we want to get this done, we're going to have to split up into three teams: one to take out Unicron's backup systems, one to take down the shields around his spark chamber, and one to be at the spark chamber itself when said shields go down," Kira stated.

"Agreed," Optimus nodded before he turned to the group and began giving out assignments. "Arcee, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Cagalli, and Athrun and Blast Blade will move to the point near Unicron's head to either disable or destroy his backup systems. Meanwhile, Bulkhead, Crosshairs, Springer, Lunamaria, and Shinn, you will head for the shield controls and shut them down any way that you can. Kira and I will head for his spark chamber and then move in the moment that the shields are down."

"With all due respect sir, that seems like a bit of risk, having most of our guys go to two different areas while only you and Kira head for the arena that the big final showdown's gonna take place," Smokescreen argued.

"Your concern is noted and appreciated, Smokescreen, but as Kira and I have indicated before, he and I are the only ones who _must_ enter Unicron's spark chamber. I will admit that I had hoped we would be able to bring a good number of the team with us, but circumstances now make that impossible for the moment if we wish to ensure that Unicron's defenses do not hinder us any more than necessary," Optimus replied.

Before anyone else could protest, Kira cut them all off and said, "We don't have time to argue or come up with anything better than that. Every second we waste in here is another one where Unicron may be drawing closer to either killing more of our friends and destroying Cybertron."

No other arguments arose at that point, but instead, there were only silent, hesitant nods in acceptance of Kira's words, and that was all that Optimus needed to see from any of them before he finally gave the order. "Autobots, Gundam pilots, roll out!"

Seconds later, Optimus and Kira were both in their ground-based vehicle modes and racing along the quickest path to the Chaos Bringer's spark chamber, as indicated by Blast Blade, while the rest of the group split into their designated teams and raced towards their objectives in vehicle mode as well. As they were going, the room around Athrun's team suddenly shook a little under the force of an explosion, which led him to ask, "What in the world was that?"

"Either Metroplex just sent out one serious blast at Unicron, be it on his own or with help from some of our other friends, or things outside are really heating up at one serious rate," Bumblebee replied in a grim tone, leading everyone to leave it at that before they returned their focus to the task at hand, mostly so that they would not be thinking about how worried they were for their friends outside.

* * *

What Bumblebee had not thought of, was that both of his guesses were correct. Metroplex had indeed launched a very powerful attack at Unicron, backed by a blast from the main cannons of the _Minerva_ , the _Seraphim_ , and the _Kusanagi_ , but even if said attack had done even the smallest bit of harm to the Chaos Bringer, it did not keep the battle from escalating more than it already had. The biggest example of this would be in the case of Superion's battle against Bruticus, only now it could not really be called just another face-off, but rather, as something that was more akin to a battle to the death. This was not all that surprising really, given the history that the two had shared up until now, but to anyone who did not know about said history, they would be completely astonished and likely paralyzed with fear watching the brutality with which both titans were fighting each other with.

Superion threw a mighty swing at Bruticus' head, but the Decepticon combiner merely ducked under the blow and directed a punch at his enemy's gut. Thankfully, Superion managed to sidestep the attack and maneuver around to Bruticus' back so that he could deliver an elbow into the Decepticon's back, knocking Bruticus a short distance away. When Superion was about to move towards his opponent to deliver a finishing blow, Bruticus spun around and unleashed a massive stream of fire from his flamethrower, catching Superion off-guard when he did so and causing him to receive a serious burn to his left side as a result. Bruticus then took advantage of Superion's current state to activate his spinning-blade shield and charge right towards the Aerialbot combiner with said shield forward, fully intending to cut Superion apart with it. Luckily, Superion managed to blast over Bruticus' head at just the last second and then fired a powerful blast at the Decepticon using one of his main arm guns, and as a result of this unexpected attack, Bruticus found himself crying out in pain due to the sudden loss of the arm that carried his flamethrower.

Looking to where his now severed arm had once been, Bruticus found himself becoming even more enraged with his opponent, and when he saw that there was no sign of the Combaticon that became said appendage, he immediately roared in anger, "You'll pay for that, Superion!"

"I don't think so, Bruticus. This time, only one of us is going to walk away, and I intend to make sure that it won't be you," Superion shouted, arming his swords and charging in once again, colliding the blades with Bruticus' shield once the two had met each other.

After the two put up a hard struggle to overpower one another, Superion finally managed to push Bruticus back and then slice his swords through one of Bruticus' legs, severing the limb and destroying the Combaticon who served as said leg as a result. This did not stop Bruticus though; if anything, it only made him angrier, as shown when he charged Superion in a blind rage, swinging his remaining limbs at the Aerialbot combiner as wildly as he could, along with his shield. It was at this point that Superion did not need to really try fighting any longer, as he was easily able to avoid every blow that his old rival was throwing out like it was nothing, and showing that Bruticus had been consumed by his anger. Many times, Superion spotted an opening he could take advantage of to take down the Combaticons once and for all, but he ignored them all, because he still hoped that he might be able to do something that would convince Bruticus to finally give up and surrender. When the Decepticon did not, Superion let out a small sigh before he finally knocked Bruticus away with the flat of one of his swords and then blasted him with one of his blasters again.

When the smoke from said blast's impact had cleared, Superion was shocked to see that Bruticus was still moving and trying to fight, despite the serious amount of damage he had now incurred from Superion's previous attack. "Enough Bruticus. This battle is over. Just surrender and come quietly," Superion shouted, hoping that the Combaticon would see reason.

"You killed…our brothers in arms…" Bruticus growled, though his voice was now a mix of his own, and that of the three remaining Combaticons that were making up what was left of his body, showing just how weak he had become. "We will…we will never surrender…until you are destroyed!"

Admittedly, a small part of Superion admired Bruticus' determination, or rather, the determination that was held by the Combaticons as a whole, and the strength of loyalty and unity that they clearly held for each other. Having seen it so many times before honestly made the Aerialbots think that the Decepticon team could have made great Autobots had they taken the chance to join up with them, but some things were just never meant to be, and that made what Superion had to do next all the more difficult. "Then you leave me no choice," Superion said as he prepared all of his weapons to fire at their maximum output. "I'm sorry, Bruticus. You were a worthy rival, and I would have been proud to have had a chance to call you an ally had things been different."

Bruticus just stared at Superion as he continued to slowly trudge forward in the vain hopes of landing one last, desperate attack, and as Superion's blast came racing towards him, he could not help but smirk a little at his rival's words, at least on the inside. An instant later, the blast had struck him, and like that, the Combaticons were no more. Despite this though, Superion could have sworn that he heard Bruticus say one last thing before he had been destroyed. "Thank you for being my greatest opponent…Superion."

Such sentiments between rivals, even ones who were the bitterest of enemies, have often been sad to behold, especially at times such as this, and Superion could not help but hang his helm in sorrow at the loss of life that he had just brought about. Still, there was no time for him mourn for anyone, and he immediately turned to help his fellow Combiners in their own battles, deciding that Defensor would need his assistance more since Fortress Maximus had since returned to the battlefield to aid Abominus in the battle against Scorpnok.

* * *

Bumblebee and Athrun's team made some impressive time, despite the fact that their target was the furthest away from their starting location, and from what they could tell, they were nearly at the entrance to Unicron's backup systems. Still, in spite of making such good time, there was still no hiding the worry they all felt for their respective team leaders, but somehow, Athrun's worry for his best friend was the most apparent out of everyone's, and he was one of the people who was flying in a mobile suit. Seeing her husband's state of distress instantly perked Cagalli into action, so she moved to fly alongside the Infinite Justice and asked, "Are you okay, Athrun?"

"Not really," Athrun admitted. "I get that what we're doing is important, and I'm really glad that I'm on your team so I can help make sure that both the job gets done and that you're safe, but I'm still worried sick about Kira. I mean, I know it seems like he and Optimus have to do this on their own, but you've seen the kind of power that the two of us possess whenever we combine our Gundams together and form Infinite Freedom, so what if he needs that power boost at any point during the fight? I'll be miles away from him and unable to help, so he does end up needing that kind of help at a critical moment, then that'll just increase the chances that he might…"

"Let me stop you right there," Cagalli immediately interrupted with a clear edge in her tone. "Don't you dare go thinking like that for a second, you understand me? Yes, you and Kira are stronger together, whether it's when you combine your machines or when you're just fighting side-by-side like you have done plenty of times in the past, but what you're forgetting is that you're also both incredibly strong on your own. Even at moments when you aren't right next to each other, you're still able to support each other, in spirit if in nothing else. I'm just as worried about Kira, my _brother_ as you are, but I have to believe that if I continue to have faith that he'll make it through this, then he will. So you make sure that your faith in him doesn't falter either, okay?"

Athrun stared at his wife for a minute before he finally smiled to her and nodded to show he understood. He knew he was being a bit silly to think that Kira could not win without the power of Infinite Freedom Gundam, but he had let his worries cloud his judgment for a brief moment. Such things are excusable of course, seeing as the two have been best friends since childhood, but at moments like this, there could not be even a slight hint of doubt in one in another or that they would be able to come out of this victorious and alive. With his belief in his best friend and his resolve now stronger than ever, Athrun made to press on along with the rest of the team, only to pause in thought for a moment as something occurred to him that had the three Autobots had noticed some time ago but had not really voiced concerns about until now.

"Something really isn't right here," Bumblebee commented, getting the voices of concern going.

"Bee's right. Knockout said that our Silver Energon shields should be registering us as a virus to Unicron, and yet, we've been going about in here without any interference at all," Arcee agreed.

"So then, if he or at least his body's immune system really is registering us as a virus, then where are all the antibodies," Smokescreen asked. "Unless…"

"They're waiting for us at our destination, which means that we're likely driving right into a trap," Arcee finished for the kid.

"Is that kind of thing even possible," Cagalli asked. "I mean, I know that Unicron is supposed to be like some kind of Transformer god or something, but could he really control his immune system like that?"

The blonde's answer came right when they reached the backup systems, and they found a massive horde of Unicron's antibodies, just hanging above them like bats on the ceiling of a cave. Every single one of the little monsters just floated there, like they were waiting and watching for something to come flying into their nest like the five just had, and with the way they were all giving off a faint humming sound, it was clear that they were prepared to strike at a moment's notice. Even though Cagalli's question had already been answered, Bumblebee still felt that it was necessary to give a fully voiced one all the same once he and the others had all assumed their bipedal modes. "There's no question of whether or not he _could_ , Cagalli, he is _indeed_ able to control his immune system to such a degree."

The sound of Bumblebee's voice was instantly followed by the sounds of the antibodies waking up and swarming the team, and the team was also quick to react by quickly arming whatever weapons they could and opening fire on the swarm of monsters that wanted to tear them apart, lighting up the room with flashes of energon blasts, beam weapons, and even the whistling and shimmering of blades slashing through the air. As this continued, the team all did their best to make their way towards Unicron's backup systems, but with the way things were going, it was clear that it would be a struggle just to make it a few steps forward at the moment.

* * *

Shinn and Bulkhead's team were having just about as much luck as the others were, as they had barely gone half the distance towards their objective before Unicron's antibodies appeared and began to swarm them. Thankfully, the Grand Destiny and the Pure Impulse's vehicle modes were all equipped for aerial combat, as was Springer's helicopter mode, so they did not need to stop very often to fight the little bugs off of them. That did not mean that they did not have to stop at all, because there were indeed quite a few times when Crosshairs, Shinn, or Luna had to pause in their advance and assume their bipedal modes to deliver a much more powerful counter offensive against the enemy, and sometimes, all three had to do so in order to create a large enough opening so that they could better move forward. The last of those options were rather rare though, as each one of them tended to recover from using some of their more powerful abilities in order to fend off the enemy quite quickly, despite how quickly they had to be moving at the time.

Eventually, through some miracle, the five finally made it to their destination, and all that was left to do at that point was to smash the shield generator enough so that Optimus and Kira's path would be clear. The problem was, they had no way of really knowing for sure just how much damage they would need to inflict before it went down, since any attempts at communicating with Kira and Optimus had become futile just minutes after the teams had split up, so that meant that they only had one option open to them: smashing it up until there was barely anything left to smash, and when it came to breaking things, they had the perfect Wrecker for the job. "Bulkhead, get to the generator and go nuts on it like there's no tomorrow! We'll cover you as best as we can," Shinn shouted as he released another blast of his Grand Destiny Breaker into a swarm of antibodies. He really wished he had his Ragnarok Cannon right now, but since Rey had still been holding it when he blew up the Liberator, there was really nothing he could do about it now.

"You've got it, Shinn," Bulkhead nodded as he fired one of his arm blasters at the antibodies while switching his free hand into its wrecking ball mode. He did not have to wait very long for that opening to be made, thanks in no small part to Springer and Lunamaria, and once he had reached the generator, he immediately started pounding away at the device with everything he had, while also throwing out a few blasts as well. "This is for Dreadwing," Bulkhead shouted as he landed a blow. "This is for Rey," he continued as he fired an insanely powerful blast from his blaster. "This is for Quintessa!" Another declaration, followed by another blow from the wrecking ball. "And this…this is for me, Shinn, and everyone else you've ever hurt in one way or another since coming back, Unicron," he finally finished as he landed one last blow from both weapons, leading the entire shielding system to start going up in a brilliant explosion.

"Wow. Bulkhead's really been holding a lot in since this whole thing started," Lunamaria noted as she fired the Pure Impulse's weapons into the swarm of antibodies that were still coming after them, while preparing to use her Cyber Key power once again, this time using it to engage the burst mode of her Gundam's Beam Cannons, allowing her to unleash the Final Impulse Burst on a large portion of the swarming enemies, and even allowing the blast to strike both the walls and the ceiling so that a large amount of both would come crashing down on the antibodies.

"You complaining," Crosshairs asked as he spun, ducked, and weaved through the swarms while firing his guns every-which-way that he could.

"Nope," Luna replied as simply as she could.

"Well don't celebrate either. The job's still not done yet," Bulkhead reminded them all as he stepped back into the fight without moving from his current position. "We've gotta make sure this thing stays broken long enough for Kira and Optimus to get into Unicron's spark chamber, do their thing, and then get back out, otherwise, all of this will have been for nothing."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on letting Rey's sacrifice go to waste," Shinn reassured his Autobot Guardian, partner, and friend, all while readying his Beam Sword. "We hold this position, draw the line, and make our stand here. Not just for Optimus and Kira, but for Rey too!"

Everyone gave a resounding cheer of agreement to that sentiment, and like that, the five were unleashing a new storm of attacks on any enemies that were unfortunate enough to try and attack them or just cross their paths as they held their position.

* * *

Kira and Optimus were both worried when they arrived at their destination and found themselves unable to contact the rest of the team, but it was not to a very great extent. They both had a feeling that would be the case for anyone who would be going to where they were going, so all they could really do was wait until the shields before them went down. When they finally did come down, opening up the path to their destination, the two quickly started their trek forward, moving as fast as they could in bipedal mode, since they did not want to waste energon by transforming anymore than necessary. What Kira found really worrying though, was that Optimus seemed a little preoccupied at the moment. To say that such a sight was surprising would be a gross understatement, since Kira never once saw Optimus looking even the least bit nervous, and seeing the last Prime nervous was definitely making Kira feel a little worried.

"Optimus are you okay," Kira asked when he finally found himself unable to ignore his friend's worried state any longer.

"I am fine, Kira," Optimus tried to reassure his friend, his voice almost completely even and controlled, but Kira was still able to hear the nervousness in his tone all the same.

Seeing this, Kira decided that he should do what he could to reassure his friend and said, "Do me a favor and promise me that you won't use the Matrix as anything other than a last resort, okay?" When Optimus turned to give him a questioning look, Kira continued to press on. "We're gonna find a way to beat him without having to make you lose your memories of being a Prime again, and more importantly, we're going to make it back from this alive. We've got a lot of important people waiting for us out there, and I know that we won't have to make any kind of sacrifice play of our own. Too many people have already died today, and we're not letting our names get added to that list, so don't worry about it, okay? We're gonna get through this together."

As he listened to his friend speak, Optimus could sense that any worries Kira had were slowly disappearing as well, and as a result, he allowed his emotionless mask to slip away for a moment and grace his face with a thankful smile before he told Kira one simple sentence. "I am not worried, Kira. I am with you."

Kira gasped a little in surprised when he heard that, but his shock soon subsided and became replaced with a warm, thankful smile as he nodded in return, and the two immediately continued moving forward to their goal with a new, slight spring in each of their steps. That spring soon left them right when they found themselves in a massive chamber that Optimus found reminiscent of the one he had gone into with Galvatron and Le Creuset back when Unicron's spark was trapped inside of Earth's core. In Kira's opinion, the chamber was massive enough to fit the Roman Coliseum inside of it and still have room for a few football stadiums, minimum, and the walls seemed to be littered with cables and orbs that almost seemed like veins. There was not really anything to hide behind for any kind of cover, and in the very center of the room was a massive, dark purple colored orb that seemed to light up the entire room like Times Square on New Year's Eve. As the two approached the orb, they could feel a terrible, dark presence start weighing down on them, confirming that this was exactly what they had come into Unicron in order to find.

"This is it, isn't it," Kira asked, just to make sure that he was not wrong in his guess. "This is Unicron's spark?"

"Indeed. This is the very heart of Unicron's darkness. The very core of the greatest darkness we have ever encountered in the known universe," Optimus confirmed while he leveled a particularly strong glare on the orb.

"And unfortunately for you, it will be the last thing either of you ever see," a painstakingly familiar voice hissed, and the two immediately spun to their left to see Galvatron stepping out of the shadows so that he was standing before them, right in the perfect position to move at a moment's notice, be it to attack them or to impede their path towards his master's spark.

"Welcome Kira Yamato and Optimus Prime, to the very heart of darkness. You've now saved us the trouble of coming to find the two of you in order to end your existences," another twisted voice said, and the two immediately turned in the opposite direction to see Rau Le Creuset stepping out of the shadows to stand next to Galvatron. Kira found it a little odd that Le Creuset was not currently in his Advocate Gundam, but at this point, he was beginning to wonder if anything about the masked blonde was really all that normal now.

"Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset," Optimus snarled while Kira just glared.

"You both do know what's going on out there right," Kira eventually asked. "Nearly everyone in the universe is fighting to keep your master from destroying Cybertron, including some of your own fellow Decepticons. Galvatron, your homeworld is about to be destroyed! Surely you can see just how messed up this is. I thought you wanted to bring Cybertron back to its former glory, not see it completely annihilated."

At first, Kira's cries seemed to fall on deaf ears, but eventually the two both laughed simultaneously, almost sounding as if they were laughing in perfect sync, and then shocked both the last Prime and the Ultimate Coordinator when they both spoke at exactly the same time, with both of their voices distorted by the enemy that they were all fighting at this very moment. **"Foolish human. While the vessels that stand before you are indeed those that you have come to know as Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset, the fact of the matter is, they are now just another pair of empty shells in which I may manifest my power."**

"Unicron," Optimus snarled. "You have seized full control over both of your greatest pawns?"

 **"Oh how little you understand, disciple of Primus,"** Unicron scoffed. **"Galvatron and Rau Le Creuset have always been under my power. Ask yourselves, do you really believe that ones with a strong will such as them could have ever willingly decided to serve another master, even when it is one who is as much of a greater power as I? No, I knew that one or even both of them would have eventually tried to rebel against me and seize my power for themselves, so I made sure to silence any possible voices of defiance that may have formed in their minds before they could begin to speak. As you may have already learned, I could make my presence in their minds much more obvious and apparent when I wanted to, but not even they realized that I was using them like pathetic puppets the entire time. It is rather ironic, actually. Not too long ago, Rau Le Creuset had declared that there were no longer any strings on him, and yet even then, he never realized that he was indeed still just another puppet, another tool doing another's bidding."**

As much as they both wanted to deny it, Optimus and Kira knew that there was some truth to what Unicron was saying. Even if he did come back from the dead with a new upgrade like the one that had changed him into Galvatron, the real Megatron would only serve the one who granted him this new life until _he_ decided that his debt had been repaid, and he would likely have found some way to become even stronger once he found a chance to sever all ties to the person that debt needed to be paid to, and yet Galvatron had always remained completely loyal to Unicron, doing whatever the Chaos Bringer had wanted him to do right from the day that they had met him. Le Creuset was exactly the same in the sense that he would have just played along with whatever Unicron wanted him to do until he found a way for everything to play out the way he wanted it to, manipulating things from the shadows on both sides of the chess board until the pieces had fallen into a setup that would only allow him to be the one who would win in the end, and yet he too had been willingly doing whatever Unicron commanded him to do. It was a horrifying realization for them to gain, but all the same it was one that held so much truth to it that they could not ignore it either.

"So all this time, even your most loyal and dedicated heralds of darkness have been nothing more than tools for your own benefit," Kira growled in disgust.

 **"Indeed. Chaos has no true friends or allies; only servants to do its bidding, and as the Chaos Bringer, I embody that proudly,"** Unicron replied through Galvatron and Le Creuset.

"Then that just means that there are two more victims for us to save from your wrath, Unicron," Optimus declared, and he then reached back and readied the Star Saber for battle, his battle mask locking into place the minute the blade he had the blade firmly in his grasp, while Kira simply moved the Strike Freedom so that it was ready to strike at a moment's notice.

 **"You are a fool, disciple of Primus; you and your little human pet. Neither of you can truly comprehend the power I possess, and which now flows through my heralds now that they are completely under my power,"** Unicron decreed. As he said this, Le Creuset's body suddenly rose up off the floor until he was floating in midair, right at the point where the cockpit of a mobile suit would normally be from the ground, and a second later, the Advocate Gundam seemed to manifest itself in an explosion of Dark Energon smoke, armed and ready for battle, while Galvatron summoned the Dark Star Saber to his hand in a similar manner.

"That may be, but it won't change the outcome of things here," Kira stated. "As Optimus and I both told Megatron and Le Creuset the last time we all clashed, at the end of this battle, one shall stand and one shall fall."

 **"Then by all means, Kira Yamato and Optimus Prime, let us bring an end to this long cycle of battle,"** Unicron demanded, and an instant later, the four combatants were all charging in and meeting each other in battle, Optimus' Star Saber colliding with Galvatron's Dark Star Saber, and Kira's Strike Freedom Gundam exchanging blows with Rau Le Creuset's Advocate Gundam.

* * *

Back outside, the battle was continuing to rage on at an incredible intensity, especially for the mobile suit pilots who were throwing everything they had into every single attack they made against an enemy. Mu La Flaga was probably the greatest example of that right at that very moment, since he was currently dueling it out with Prayer Reverie once again, and while he did not intend to follow Rey's lead in defeating his newest rival, Mu also had no intention of failing to take out the younger blonde today. That was proving to be quite difficult, seeing as Prayer had apparently upgrade his custom HorseMan mobile suit so that it could better match the Star Force Strike, but Mu only took that to mean that the kid was willing to acknowledge Mu as a serious threat that he needed to defeat. No one else was really planning on treating it as lightly as the Hawk of Endymion seemed to be though.

Any hint of amusement in the matter quickly left Mu though when Prayer managed to score a few good hits on him, until one final hit sent the Star Force Strike flying into the wreckage of a Junkion ship that had been taken out at some point during the battle. Seeing the commander take such a major hit immediately prompted Nicol to race over to Mu's aid to make sure he was alright. Once he had done so, Nicol immediately turned the Nero Blitz around so that it was in position to charge forward and said, "I can take this guy until you're ready to go again, but once you are, we can take him together."

"Forget it kid. He's mine," Mu immediately brushed off, and from the sound of his voice, Nicol knew not only that it would not be smart to argue with the older man but also that Mu was now deadly serious in the matter of taking down his opponent.

Mu proved this idea true the instant that the Star Force Strike had blasted forward again by activating his machine's Cosmic Charge Mode, and the minute that the mobile suit was close enough, it was slashing through every single one of the heavy weapons that was currently equipped onto the Custom HorseMan's back with his beam saber, forcing Prayer to eject said weapons before they blew off any part of his mobile suit. Mu did not let up there though, as he then readied the Star Force Strike's Cyber Beam Rifle to fire, and the minute that he had Prayer dead-center in his crosshairs, he let loose a powerful energon beam that quickly caused both the machine and its pilot to be consumed in the blast. Of course, since the blast was so powerful, it also ended up destroying anything that it passed along its path to its target, and continued to do so until it finally dissipated, but thankfully, Mu had made sure to fire it in a way that kept it from harming any of his allies. With Prayer now effectively dealt with, Mu turned his attention back to the main matter at hand, and turned his rifle towards some of the other larger concentrations of enemies before firing another, more powerful blast from the rifle.

Seeing the actions his fellow Gundam pilot had just been taking made Waltfeld smirk a little as he continued blasting and slashing through enemies as well while simultaneously doing his best to keep said enemies away from any friendly ships, but that smirk quickly vanished when a sudden pulse of energy seemed reverberate from out of Unicron. Oddly enough, it seemed like no one else had noticed it at first, until Mu suddenly asked, "Hey, did anyone else feel that just now?"

"What're you talking about," Yzak asked.

"It felt like some kind of shockwave just exploded from out of Unicron. Almost like an echo of two powerful forces colliding against each other or something," Mu clarified.

"Uh…I didn't feel anything," Dearka replied, and a string of negative replies from the rest of the Joule Team were quick to follow him before Waltfeld spoke up.

"I felt it," the Desert Tiger said. "And even without using the ZERO System, I can tell you that was definitely a sign that it's started. The true final battle in this senseless conflict that Unicron has forced the entire universe into. More than that though, it also means something really bad is going to happen very soon if Optimus and Kira can't secure a win before it's too late."

No one could say anything in response to that, but that was mostly due to the fact that they had bigger problems at the moment than odd feelings or concerns about what was happening to their friends that were inside the planet-sized Transformer. Still, that did not stop them from saying a quick prayer or two for those friends the minute they had the chance.

* * *

If there had been any outside observers to the fight that was taking place inside of Unicron's spark chamber, they would tell you that Optimus and Galvatron-Unicron's battle looked like a real-life lightsaber duel right out of _Star Wars_. Sure, a good deal of that idea would likely be due to the fact that the two's swords were glowing brightly in a certain color and seemed to flash as they were swung around and collided with each other, but if you were to watch the combatants as well, you would see just as much of a comparison there as well. Neither Optimus nor Galvatron-Unicron were using any other weapons for the most part other than their respective sabers, and despite their large sizes, they were jumping, spinning, and running around their corner of the battlefield with incredible speed and reflexes that one would not find typical of a large warrior. That was not to say that they were doing things that would be impossible for warriors of their size, but it was still impressive to say the least. Every strike, every parry, every blow that was delivered from one onto the other was practically a reflection of the skill and power behind the ones who were delivering them, even if Unicron was just using the power and skill that Galvatron possessed along with his own abilities.

The two soon charged each other again, and ended up colliding their blades against one another when they met halfway. **"You fight with a rather surprising viciousness for a disciple of Primus,"** Unicron commented through Galvatron.

"War forces many things to change in a person, Chaos Bringer," Optimus stated. "But I doubt I need to tell you that."

 **"Indeed you do not,"** Unicron confirmed just before he pushed Optimus off of him, spinning around to attempt a low swing at Optimus' legs. Thankfully, Optimus was able to avoid the attack with a quick jump, but he was not able to dodge the unexpected blast from the energy cannon that Galvatron-Unicron formed around his left arm, and he was sent stumbling back a ways as a result. Thankfully, Optimus was able to recover quickly enough to be able to raise the Star Saber above him in a defensive position, just in time to block the downward slash that his enemy was throwing at him.

It was a bit of a struggle for Optimus, pushing back Galvatron-Unicron's blade as he attempted to stand, but he managed to do both in the end, and once he had pushed the Dark Star Saber away, he immediately armed his left arm blaster and fired it at point-blank range. The blast may have caught the Galvatron-Unicron off-guard, but it did not send him as far back as his own blast had Optimus and only caused him to stumble a little. Still, it was better than Optimus had hoped for, as he used the new breathing room he had given himself to try and level the playing field in his favor by using his jetpack to turn this into an aerial battle. What he was not expecting, was for Unicron to grant the vessel of Galvatron with a jetpack of his own that allowed him to meet Optimus in full aerial combat, and the two were soon crossing blades in midair for a few brief moments until they had both ended up knocking each other back down to the ground, disabling their flight abilities for the time being.

From where he was, Kira was only really able to really note a few of the more significant parts of Optimus' battle, but even then, he did not see everything in its entirety, because he had to put all of his focus into his own fight. While many of the Advocate Gundam's abilities were similar to those of the Providence and the Legend, Unicron was also providing it with additional abilities as well through the power of Dark Energon, such as forming energy cannons over its hands and increasing its speed and strength to levels that it could not reach before, but Kira was still not quite at the point where he was outmatched. The Strike Freedom made it so that Kira was able to keep up with his opponent much more easily than the last time he and Le Creuset had clashed with each other, even if the masked man was now fighting as nothing more than a puppet of Unicron, and as such, it was only through the Chaos Bringer's Dark Energon enhancements that Unicron-Le Creuset was able to gain even the smallest advantage over Kira. Thankfully, Kira did not seem to have to worry about those enhancements all that much, because from what he could tell, the Chaos Bringer could only provide such abilities at a great extent to one of his two possessed heralds at a time, and it was clear as day that he was focusing more of his attention on powering up Galvatron than he was his human herald, so Kira liked to think that he had something of an advantage.

Such ideas were not entirely sound though, as he Kira soon found out when he armed the Strike Freedom with a dual beam saber and charged in for a direct assault on the Advocate, much like he had done at the end of his last duel with Le Creuset, but unlike that last duel, his strike ended up missing the mark when the Advocate suddenly spun away from the blade and knocked the Strike Freedom down with an elbow jab to the back of its head. **"Not this time, boy,"** Unicron-Le Creuset declared, showing that a bit of Rau Le Creuset was still in there somewhere. **"Is that really the best that a human trained and influenced by a Prime can do, Ultimate Coordinator or otherwise?"**

"You wish," Kira retorted as he changed the Strike Freedom's free hand into an arm blaster and fired a quick barrage while the Advocate was still at such close range. About half of Kira's shots were able to hit their mark before the Advocate blasted away from its opponent, allowing Kira the chance to stand the Strike Freedom up straight again while sending its DRAGOONs out in a quick assault on the enemy machine.

Unicron-Le Creuset was quick to counter Kira's attempt at confusion by sending his machine's own DRAGOONs out in response, and soon enough, the bit weapons of both mobile suits were all destroyed, leaving the two to fight without one of their usual weapons. That did not stop either Kira or Unicron-Le Creuset though, as they were both soon trading blows with beam sabers and arm blades moments later, while simultaneously trying to land even a glancing blow with whatever long-range weapons they had left at their disposal. After trading a few blows with their beam sabers and arm blades though, Kira finally managed to push the Advocate Gundam back and then landed a slice on the dark machine with his twin beam saber before he spun around and fired the Strike Freedom's Multi-Phase Beam Cannon to deliver an extra dose of damage. The two were about to charge each other again when the room shook under the force of the same pulse of energy that Mu and Waltfeld had just felt outside. The only difference was, every occupant of the room felt it, and it brought concerned looks to Optimus and Kira's faces while smug grins found their ways onto Galvatron and Le Creuset's faces, though whether or not those grins were because of Unicron's influence it was not really easy to say.

"What was that," Kira asked, knowing that he would probably not like the answer.

 **"I believe that Le Creuset would once have called it 'the final door opening at last', Kira Yamato,"** Unicron replied through both of his heralds. **"At long last, I am able to fire my most powerful weapon once again, and this time, your allies will not be able to stop it from ending Cybertron. Soon Cybertron shall be no more, and with both the two of you and Primus gone, nothing shall prevent me from spreading my darkness over the universe however I see fit."**

"No way! I won't let that happen," Kira shouted, and he quickly turned the Strike Freedom so that it would be able to fly out of the spark chamber, thinking that he would be able to send any kind of communication signal to warn the others that Unicron was preparing to fire his chest cannon again if he could just get far enough away from the Chaos Bringer's spark.

His plan did not quite go as he had hoped, because an instant later, the Advocate Gundam was firing all of its weapons at the Strike Freedom. Since he had long since entered SEED Burst, Kira was able to see most of the attacks coming, and was able to swiftly dodge a good deal of them, especially after transforming the Strike Freedom into its jet mode, but he was not able to dodge every blast forever, and soon enough, Kira was knocked out of the air and back down to the ground below by a few well-placed shots from Unicron-Le Creuset. Thankfully, Kira had managed to change the Strike Freedom back into Gundam mode before he crashed down, but before he could get his trusted machine back on its feet again, he found himself suddenly pinned down by the Advocate Gundam's foot. **"There is nothing you can do to prevent this now, child. The age of Primus and his disciples is over, and my age of chaos and darkness is only just beginning,"** Unicron-Le Creuset decreed as he kept the struggling Strike Freedom down beneath his evil Gundam's foot.

Optimus was not going to have any of that, and he showed it too, right from the moment that he saw Kira get shot down. The minute that had happened, the last Prime pushed Galvatron-Unicron back in their most recent struggle to overpower the other when their blades had locked, and the minute that the herald of the Chaos Bringer had been shoved back, Optimus swung the Star Saber around to release a surge of energy to send Galvatron-Unicron even further away. This allowed Optimus the chance to stow his mighty blade on his back and start racing over to Kira as he shouted, "Hang on Kira!"

Testing out his jetpack, Optimus found himself still unable to take flight, but that did not stop him from continuing his charge, so instead, he quickly activated his left arm blaster and fired a few quick shots at the Advocate Gundam, blasting it off of Kira when the blasts struck, and he then switched into his truck mode so that he could race forward at a much greater speed. Doing so also allowed Optimus the chance to fire off a missile barrage on the Advocate Gundam, keeping Unicron-Le Creuset distracted long enough for the Strike Freedom to finally get clear of the two, but it did not allow either of them the chance to be rid of Galvatron just yet, as the possessed leader of the Decepticons was quick to assume his jet mode and fire off a few rounds that kept Kira from trying to get out so that he could warn the others and Optimus from continuing his attack on Le Creuset. Optimus immediately hit the brakes and spun around in a hard turn to avoid most of Galvatron's barrage, and once he had gained enough speed, he switched to his jet mode and took to the air to engage Galvatron in aerial combat once more.

Galvatron-Unicron did not stay airborne long enough for Optimus to have the chance for that fight though, as he easily managed to evade most of Optimus' initial blasts so that he could swoop down to the ground and assume his tank mode almost seconds after seeing the Prime moving to switch to aerial combat. A quick blast from Galvatron's cannon was all it took to knock Optimus out of the air, but thankfully, the Prime was able to assume his robot mode before he crashed down. Galvatron and Le Creuset both then moved to fire their weapons in a concentrated assault on Optimus, but this time, it was Kira who came to Optimus' rescue, as the Ultimate Coordinator swooped into a position where he would be able to use all of his long-range weapons on the two enemies without having to worry about Optimus getting caught in the crossfire. It may not have been quite what his usual full burst attack normally was, since he did not have the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs to provide an additional range of blasts, but it was more than enough to either damage or drive Galvatron and Le Creuset away from Optimus for now, and also to divert their attention fully onto him.

Unicron-Le Creuset easily managed to reengage Kira in battle after the Gundam pilot's attack had landed, but Galvatron found himself unable to join when Optimus managed to arm his Minigun and fired a barrage that returned the possessed Decepticon's attention back to him once again. Galvatron-Unicron was quick to engage Optimus once again, and it was not long before Optimus found himself losing his hold on his Minigun after he was struck by a rather serious blow from the Decepticon leader. That same blow caused Optimus to land just a few feet in front of Unicron's spark, and when he looked up at said object, Optimus just knew that they were running out of time if they wanted to stop Unicron from firing that terrible cannon of his again, and that meant that there was now only one way to stop Unicron and save everyone: the Matrix.

Kira must have realized this as well, as he quickly paused in his fight against the Advocate Gundam to spare a few shots in Galvatron-Unicron's direction so that Optimus could have enough time to stand up and prepare to use the powerful relic that held the collective wisdom of the Primes directly on Unicron's spark. He may not have liked the idea, but Kira knew that it was likely the only way to stop Unicron now, so he just resolved to make sure that he would be able to convince Optimus to come with him in case he reverted to his pre-Prime state again after releasing the Matrix's power. What neither of them expected though, was that this plan would also fail to work as they were hoping it would.

Just as Optimus had built up enough power in the Matrix and opened his chest to reveal the Matrix within, Galvatron somehow managed to get through the barrage Kira was using to keep him away and struck Optimus as hard in the back as he could. The result of this surprise attack not only caused Optimus to be thrown away from Unicron's spark, but also caused the Matrix to be knocked right out of the compartment that it was held within, much to Kira's horror. **"Your precious Matrix will not save you this time, Optimus Prime. This time, I shall stand victorious over Primus' precious creations,"** Unicron boasted through Galvatron as he quickly moved to hold Optimus Prime at cannon point.

Seeing Optimus in danger and that the Matrix was well out of reach, Kira immediately reacted in the only way that he could think to, and he instantly shoved Unicron-Le Creuset's blade fired another burst of energon beams that sent the Advocate Gundam flying across the room. With his current opponent dealt with for the moment, Kira immediately turned the Strike Freedom towards Optimus so that he could blast Galvatron off of him. After the first few blasts had hit him, Galvatron finally moved his cannon away from the Prime in order to attack the Strike Freedom, and Optimus was horrified when he saw that only one blast from the Dark Energon enhanced cannon was all it took to knock Kira's Gundam out of the fight. Oddly enough though, the machine seemed to remain intact for the most part, despite just lying on the ground like it had received severe damage, so Optimus had to assume that meant that Kira had been hurt somehow.

 **"Such a resilient if not foolish young lad. It is almost a shame that he will now have to watch helplessly as you perish,"** Galvatron-Unicron said as he moved to aim the cannon at Optimus again. Optimus just glared up at the being that was once the person he had called brother so long ago, silently telling his enemy that he was not afraid of anything he could do to him, but that glare eventually changed into a look of confusion when Galvatron-Unicron paused for some reason and turned to face where the Matrix had landed in surprise.

As it turned out, the damage that the Strike Freedom had taken was nothing serious at all, but Kira had certainly put on a very convincing show to indicate otherwise, and that was exactly what he had been hoping for. With Unicron's attention now off of him completely and nothing to stand in his way, Kira was able to jump out of his cockpit and start racing over to where the Matrix was lying, hoping that he would be able to pull it over to where Optimus was so that the last Prime would be able to use it, even in his current position. Unfortunately, Le Creuset had returned to the area a moment later and soon caught on to what Kira was doing. When he did, the possessed masked man instantly flew the Advocate forward, intending to use it to squash Kira like a bug, but just as he was reaching Kira, the Strike Freedom suddenly came out of nowhere to block his path, indicating that Kira had activated its sentry mode just before he had climbed out of it. Unicron-Le Creuset did everything he could to push the Gundam aside, but no matter what he did, it did not seem like the Strike Freedom would move at all, almost as though it were actually too stubborn to move despite whatever damage was being inflicted to it, just as Optimus or Kira would if they were in its position, and that was all that Kira needed it to do so that he could reach the Matrix.

The minute that he had done so, he immediately grabbed one of the handles in both hands before trying to pull it over to Optimus, but even though the Matrix was not very large, it was still large enough to be too heavy for Kira to effectively move it to his friend. It was at this moment that Galvatron had turned his optics on to Kira, and when he saw what the boy was trying to do, his surprise turned to amused laughter. **"Do you really think that can make difference, human,"** Galvatron-Unicron mocked through his laughter. **"You can barely even lift the Matrix off the ground, and all you have really done is make yourself an easier target."**

"KIRA," Optimus shouted in horror when he saw Galvatron-Unicron raise his cannon to where Kira was standing, but the young man did not seem to be even the slightest bit afraid, as he just continued trying to move the Matrix to where Optimus was. Optimus was quick to shout out whatever pleas that he could for Kira to get away from where he was and back into cover, but as he heard the cannon aimed at his young friend charge up to fire, Optimus knew that it would take nothing short of a miracle to save Kira. Just as Galvatron-Unicron's cannon was about to fire though, such a miracle came to them, much to Unicron's horror, as indicated by the matching, horrified expressions that both Galvatron and Le Creuset both gained.

Just when Kira felt the Matrix start to move, he found himself halting his efforts when the legendary relic of the Primes suddenly started to release an incredible, blue glow that seemed to light up the room in a way that made it seem like it was the Earth's sun while Unicron's spark was its moon. As it continued glowing, the Matrix then started to reconfigure itself until it was a size that made it easy for it to be held by a human. Kira had almost fallen back when it suddenly became light enough for him to lift without any trouble at all, but as soon as he regained his footing, he found himself holding the Matrix by its handles in both hands, while his eyes widened to the size of saucers when he heard a deep, powerful, yet gentle voice suddenly speak to him through the Matrix, along with what sounded like thousands of other voices, and they were all saying the exact same thing as the first voice, which stood out the most amongst all the other voices. **"Arise Kira Yamato Prime."**

"Primus…" Kira gasped in awe as he raised the Matrix above his head, feeling something change inside of him as he did. Although, change might not have been the best word for it; if you were to ask Kira, he would have told you it was more like something had become enhanced to its fullest potential and beyond.

 **"NO,"** Unicron roared through both Galvatron and Le Creuset, and the two were soon redoubling their efforts to try and destroy Kira. Everyone was shocked to see that any blast that they directed at Kira just bounced off of the blue aura that was surrounding him, and it seemed that something in the Strike Freedom prompted it to capitalize on Le Creuset's moment of distraction to finally push the madman aside before rushing over to its pilot.

When the light from the Matrix finally died down enough for them to see him, everyone could see that Kira seemed to have become a bit taller, and had also gained a bit more muscle in his body, though it was most notable in the area of his torso and in the fact that his shoulders had become a bit more broad than they were before. In addition to this, his pilot suit had also gone through a few changes, as the Autobot sigil on his suit's chest was now seemed to be glowing a much more brilliant red than ever before, while the white portions of his suit were now a shinning gold color, and the black had become replaced by a shade of red that was similar to that of red portions of Optimus' armor. The Matrix was resting safely against his chest, held secure by a silver harness that was connected together by straps that went over his shoulders and under his arms, and from what they could see of them, Kira's eyes seemed to glow with a fire that could only be matched by the one that Optimus seemed to possess in his optics at this very moment.

Kira only remained where he was for a few more seconds before climbing into the Strike Freedom again, which had somehow managed to regain its lost DRAGOONs thanks to the Matrix's power, and he immediately turned it towards his two enemies before he declared in a confident tone of voice that also seemed to match Optimus', "This is the end of the road, Unicron."

A second later, the Strike Freedom had charged the Advocate once again, and since Le Creuset was not expecting it, he was completely unprepared for the incredibly fast and powerful barrage of blows that Kira dealt out to him. Kira did not let up in this assault until the Advocate was finally backed into a corner, right to where any enhancements Unicron could make would all be useless, and that made it all the more easy for Kira to unleash a more powerful burst of energon blasts from all of the Strike Freedom's weapons than anything he had ever used before. Once the storm of energon blasts had faded away, all traces of the Advocate Gundam and its masked pilot were gone, and Galvatron was left as the only one of Unicron's heralds still standing.

Seeing this, Unicron immediately focused as much of his power as he could afford into Galvatron and prepared to have him attack Kira, but Optimus was not about to let that happen, and he easily managed to attack Galvatron from behind with the Star Saber, eliciting a roaring cry of pain from the possessed Decepticon leader as a result. When Galvatron-Unicron turned and resummoned the Dark Star Saber to his hand once again, he was soon crossing swords with Optimus Prime once more, not realizing how much of a mistake it was to do so until it was too late. "Kira, use the Matrix now," Optimus shouted.

Galvatron-Unicron could only stop and stare as the Strike Freedom came to stand directly in front of Unicron's spark, and then allow its pilot to step out with the Matrix firmly in his hands, fully prepared to use its power to end this madness. "Now, light our darkest hour," Kira declared, and he then unleashed the Matrix's power right into Unicron's spark.

The results were instantaneous, as Unicron's spark surged with energy that felt like the ultimate pain being inflicted a thousand times over to Unicron, as indicated as his roar of pain echoed throughout both the room and Galvatron's own voice. Seeing Galvatron was completely off balance, Optimus released one last wave of energy from the Star Saber, which soon cut through the herald of darkness and caused him to become completely consumed by it, no doubt ending him for good. As he vanished though, Optimus could have sworn that he heard Galvatron say, in his own voice, "Thank you for freeing me…brother."

Optimus just nodded at the place where Galvatron had once been before he sheathed the Star Saber on his back once more and moved to Kira as his friend climbed back into the Strike Freedom once again, the Matrix now back in the harness on his chest. "Let us return to the others so that we may leave this place…Kira Yamato Prime," Optimus told his friend.

"Right beside you, Optimus Prime," Kira nodded with a smile, and with that, the two were soon racing out of the exploding spark chamber, even as other areas exploded around them.

* * *

None of them were really sure what had happened, but one minute the antibodies had been swarming them, and the next, the remains of Unicron's backup systems had all gone up in smoke while the antibodies just suddenly burst into flames. Bumblebee and Athrun's team were not complaining about this sudden turn of good fortune, but when the room and the passage way they had come through started exploding around them, they did not hesitate to start running for where they had agreed to meet up with the others like bats out of hell. Of course, while most of the antibodies seemed to be self-destructing, there were still some that were desperately trying to destroy them, but they were able to fend them off long enough for them to make it through. When they finally reached the rendezvous point, they were all breathing sighs of relief to see Bulkhead and Shinn's team was already there, but they all became concerned when they saw no sign of Optimus or Kira.

"Athrun, Bumblebee, what's going on," Shinn shouted, relieved to see his friends were okay, but still worried about the explosions around them and the absence of their team leaders.

"Optimus and Kira must've succeeded, because Unicron seems to be going up in smoke, which means we need to get out of here now," Bumblebee replied.

"Wait, we can't leave yet! Optimus and Kira are still back there," Cagalli protested.

"Sorry Little Sister, but if we wait for them, there's a good chance we'll all die," Arcee argued. "We have to go now!"

"We can't just leave them," Lunamaria protested.

"I don't like it either, Luna, but we may not be able to get out if we wait any longer," Crosshairs pointed out.

Athrun was about to voice his own arguments to this as well, until his voice caught in his throat and he saw a pair of figures racing ahead of a stream of explosions right towards them, and he could not help but smile brightly when he recognized them both. "Guys, look," Athrun shouted, using the Infinite Justice to indicate the figures approaching them.

When the team turned in said direction, they all started beaming as much as Athrun when they saw Optimus Prime and the Strike Freedom coming towards them at their full running speed, and the explosions that seemed to follow in their wake only made their approach all the more incredible. The two did not stop running until they were standing right before the group, and it was only long enough for them each to say one thing to them, starting with Kira. "Autobots, Gundam pilots, burst on and roll out!"

"You heard the Prime, team," Optimus added as he and Kira both assumed their jet modes and started blasting towards their exit.

"Did he just call Kira…a Prime," Springer exclaimed as he jumped into his helicopter mode.

"Don't sound so surprised. We all knew Kira had it in him all along," Shinn told the triple-changer as the Grand Destiny changed into its jet mode, with the Pure Impulse doing the same seconds later, followed by Bulkhead and Crosshairs changing into their own vehicle modes after that.

"I could've told all of you that a long time ago," Athrun commented with a smile before he changed the Infinite Justice into its jet mode, with Blast Blade powerlinxing onto its back to give him an extra speed boost, while Cagalli had the Diamond Akatsuki jump up into the air so it could transform into its sea plane mode as well.

Bumblebee could not have made the wide smile on his face go away even if he wanted to, at least until he, Arcee, and Smokescreen had transformed into vehicle mode as well, and he simply said, "Well done, pal. I always knew there was far more to you than meets the eye."

The team then put metal to the pedal in a race to escape Unicron's exploding body before they were destroyed with him, and their travels soon led them to come racing out through one of Unicron's eyes, at which point, all the ground based Transformers hitched a ride with anyone who could fly so that they would not get left behind to be caught in the blast range. Once they were all clear, they joined the rest of the friendly fleet in watching as Unicron thrashed around wildly, sputtering protests until he finally went up in a brilliant explosion, and his destruction was soon followed by the destruction of every remaining Terrorcon, HorseMan, and Predacon drone that had somehow managed to survive until now. When the smoke finally cleared, all that they could see remaining of Unicron was his damaged head, floating helplessly through space as it served as the final confirmation of the battle's outcome. The defenders of Cybertron had won.

* * *

The moment that the last ship in the fleet had landed back on Cybertron and everyone had climbed out of their respective vessels or mobile suits, excited cheers of celebration immediately began echoing all over Cybertron, all in celebration of the fact that they had actually managed to defeat Unicron the Chaos Bringer and his two heralds, and the cheers of the Autobots and humans in the group were soon redoubled when they all learned that Kira had become the first Prime of both humanity and Earth. Kira had actually attempted to keep a calm attitude about it like Optimus would in such situations, but after receiving so many words of congratulations, pats on the back, and hearing a number of people say that they had known it was in him all along, he found it impossible to keep himself from smiling as brightly as a dozen stars, and smile only widened even more when Lacus raced over and planted a very loving kiss right on his lips.

The excitement of their victory over the Chaos Bringer did not last forever though, as all looks of joy and relief soon vanished when they saw what little remains of the Liberator being brought in from the battlefield. Seeing what was left of Rey's Gundam instantly reminded everyone that the price for this victory was far too high for any of them to have liked, and when he saw what had been left of his late best friend's machine, Shinn finally allowed himself to fully break down and start sobbing. Lunamaria had tried to comfort him, but her efforts did not make much difference when she was crying just as much as Shinn was, because much like her boyfriend, Luna had also thought of Rey as a brother. The feelings of sorrow at the loss of Rey Za Burrel were shared by everyone from the original and current _Minerva_ crews, including Athrun and the members of the Joule Team who had served aboard the ship in the previous war, but the only ones who shared those sorrowful feelings to the same extent as Shinn and Luna were Meyrin and Talia, who were both holding each other in a tight hug as they let a few of their own tears fall as well.

That was not to say that Rey was the only casualty in this terrible conflict, as they all learned that a lot of brave warriors from Junkion, Earth, and every other part of the fleet that had fought to defend Cybertron had suffered severe losses as well. Though not every loss was in terms of who had died, as they soon learned when they found out that Ratchet had been unable to completely repair Omega Supreme to his full capacity, and as a result, Omega had elected to assume his vehicle mode, making himself into another Cybertronian ship with very little chance of ever being able to resume his robot mode ever again. No one was too eager to see who else was on the casualty list, but somehow, Kira had known that there were no other significant losses, at least in terms of people like Rey, a fact that they all soon discovered to be true. Still, it did not make the losses they had suffered any easier, and that only served to give Optimus, Kira, Lacus, and Cagalli a reason to erect some form of a memorial for the people who had lost their lives today on both Earth and Cybertron the first chance that they had.

After everyone had taken a moment of silence to pray for the friends that they had lost, they all went their separate ways to do whatever they felt that they needed or wanted to do for the moment. No one really wanted to return to whatever world they traveled from without taking a chance to really get a good look around the world that they had all just fought so hard to keep safe from Unicron, and during that time, Kira, Lacus, Athrun, Cagalli, Shinn, Lunamaria, Dearka, Miriallia, Yzak, and Shiho all ended up strolling around their Autobot friends' world at the very same moment that Shockwave and Soundwave suddenly appeared before them. The Autobots of the group were quick to ready their weapons, already anticipating a fight, until Quicksilver suddenly appeared between both groups with his arms spread wide.

"Wait, don't shoot! Soundwave and Shockwave aren't here to fight," Quicksilver shouted to the Autobots.

"Then what are they here for," Kira asked, his hand not moving from where it was on his Energon Pistol as he stood protectively in front of Lacus, while the others did the same with their own weapons.

Shockwave was the one who answered that question, and the answer he gave was not one that anyone had been expecting. "We have concluded that continuing hostilities between Autobots and Decepticons at this point to be illogical. We are now here to negotiate…for peace."

"…Come again," Bumblebee asked while everyone else just blinked a couple of times in stunned silence.

The surprises only continued when Soundwave stepped forward and actually spoke. "Decepticons have received evidence of Galvatron's true identity from Quicksilver and the Ultracons. We are ashamed to have allowed ourselves to be deceived by such a falsehood. Megatron superior, Galvatron inferior."

"And without Starscream, command has fallen to myself and Soundwave," Shockwave continued. "Originally, we had planned to retreat to Chaar so that we may plan another offensive, but after speaking with Quicksilver, we all found such a course of action to be illogical. We would like to begin a more peaceful relationship with the Autobots and their allies, if you will allow us."

Everyone fell silent at that, having not expected this at all, until Kira finally relaxed his guard and stepped forward and said, "I think that we would all like that, Shockwave. After all, peace between Autobots and Decepticons is something that a lot of people have wanted for a long time now."

When Optimus and Lacus both voiced words of agreement with Kira, the two Decepticon leaders nodded to the three in thanks before allowing Quicksilver and Optimus to start leading them to a more suitable location for such negotiations. Just before they had gotten too far, Optimus felt the need to inform Soundwave and Shockwave of something important. "You should both know, for a moment at the end, Megatron did managed to find a way through the control Unicron had placed him under after he was remade into Galvatron, and I believe that he was grateful to finally be allowed to rest in peace. I honestly wish that it could have ended differently, but so long as he died as who he truly is, I believe that is all that matters."

Soundwave and Shockwave both nodded to Optimus in thanks once again, while everyone else smiled at hearing this news. At that point though, Dearka's attention was suddenly diverted to Miriallia when she tapped his shoulder and said, "I believe that there's something that you were supposed to ask me, right Dearka?"

Dearka's face gained a slightly red tint to it, despite the smirk that formed on his face, but that tint only grew while the smirk vanished when everyone else suddenly turned towards the two of them, having overheard what Miriallia just said. "Uh, what are you two talking about," Shinn asked.

Yzak could only smirk in response, leading Dearka to send his best friend a silent plea for him to not answer the younger pilot, but Yzak ignored them all and did so anyway. "Dearka proposed to Miriallia just before he launched into the battle."

Everyone's eyes had widened at this news before their gazes had turned to the two in question, and the blushes on both Dearka and Miriallia's faces and the accompanying smiles were all the confirmation that anyone needed. Seeing such confirmation to what he had just heard instantly brought a wide smirk to Shinn's face as he said, "HA! You can never make fun of me and Luna for admitting our feelings to each other before the Battle of Heavens Base, because now you've done it too!"

"Ah, shut up, man," Dearka grumbled before he muttered something under his breath about a silver-haired traitor. Shaking his head of such thoughts though, Dearka immediately turned back to Miriallia and then dropped to one knee like a knight bowing before a princess and asked, "Miriallia Haw, will you marry me?"

Miriallia just beamed before she replied, "Yes."

When Dearka heard that, his face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he was soon jumping into the air as he cheered, "She said yes!"

The two were soon laughing as Dearka scooped Miriallia up in his arms and spun her around, while everyone else shared large smiles at this momentous occasion, all the while knowing that everything that had happened just now, was a sign of the better future that was just beginning to form, and which was looking better and better with every passing second.

* * *

 ** _AN: And there you have it. Unicron is defeated, the universe is saved, and a new future is on the rise in more ways than one. And we were able to see at least one or two things that referenced some stuff from other Transformers series in the process._**

 ** _Kira: Uh, before we wrap anything up, mind explaining a few things about some of the things that happened in this chapter? Like why is it that even though I became a Prime, I didn't really get much of a name change besides adding Prime to the end of my normal name?_**

 ** _AN: Oh yeah, I was gonna do that anyways, Kira. So yeah, Kira's now the first Prime of humanity and Earth. Like we didn't all see this coming, right? But more importantly, I know some of you are going to be wondering about the lack of name changing for Kira beyond what was previously mentioned. Well let me remind you, not every Prime had their name changed in the way that 'Bots like Optimus and Rodimus did (example: Alpha Trion. Dude doesn't even have the word Prime in his name, and there's also Sentinel and Zeta Prime), so I didn't really see much of a problem with just settling with simply Kira Yamato Prime. Besides, what was I supposed to do? Change his name to Kiramus Prime? [cringes with a shiver] I'm sorry if anyone has ever thought of a thing like that, but to me, that just sounds...no, just not._**

 ** _Also, yeah, the change in his attire and making him look like a bigger, more muscular guy was necessary. Hey, if Optimus had to get changed from what he originally was back in his days as Orion Pax when he became either a soldier or a Prime, and if Hot Rod got a make-over when he changed into Rodimus in G1, why not Kira too when he became a Prime?_**

 ** _Bumblebee: What about all the other stuff that happened, like in the battles that took place outside of Unicron and with the other teams?_**

 ** _AN: Well I couldn't have such a big epic battle like this happening without at least highlighting a few things, and besides, some rivalries in this story were just asking to be settled, like the one between Superion and Bruticus for example. I honestly wish that I could've had them end in a much more peaceful way, but under the circumstances, I couldn't really see one. As for the other teams inside of Unicron, I couldn't just have them go their serparate ways from Optimus and Kira and not at least highlight on what they had to go through in their adventures, so including that stuff was necessary._**

 ** _Athrun: Hey, I was actually wondering, why did you end up having Le Creuset and Galvatron become just vessels that Unicron used to fight Optimus and Kira in the spark chamber?_**

 ** _AN: Ah that. Well that actually goes back to what I had said before about references to other Transformers series. You see, that was actually something that was inspired by something from Transformers Armada, namely the character of Sideways and his connection to Unicron in that series. If you don't know what I'm talking about for whatever reason, either look it up on a Transformers wiki, or watch the series. A little tip, the whole story on that is actually revealed in one of the last few episodes of Transformers Armada. _**

**_Arcee: And that whole thing at the end there when Soundwave and Shockwave showed up asking to open peace negotiations?_**

 ** _AN: Well, after everything that had happened and seeing that the heroes had taken down Unicron, the guy that all Transformers considered to be the devil himself, even without Quicksilver telling them what had happened, I doubt that they would want to really keep fighting after that no matter how evil they may or may not be, would you?_**

 ** _Well, I think that covers everything for now. If there was anything I had left out, I'll probably go back and add it in later, or just make it a deleted scene that will appear in my one-shot series, Gundam SEED Prime Series: Deleted Scenes. Check that out if you haven't already. I've really gotta update that some time soon, anyways. For now, everyone I believe that this will be the last time I will be able to say this for this trilogy, so everyone, join me in doing so..._**

 ** _Everyone: Onto the Preview!..._**

 ** _The light of a better tomorrow shines brighter than ever, as one generation prepares to pass on the torch to the next one. Even in times of peace, there are always new adventures to be had and to prepare for, and the heroes of Earth and Cybertron are all fully confident that the future they leave to the new generation will be protected. Next time on Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Prime: Chaos Hunters…_** **Final Epilogue: Continuing Legacies** ** _._**

 ** _Yep, the final preview for the final chapter in both this story and the Gundam SEED Prime trilogy. Exciting, isn't it? Well, I can promise that you'll be seeing that chapter in just a few days' time, but until then..._**

 ** _Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time!_**


	33. Epilogue: Continuing Legacies

_**AN: Well, this is it. This...is the final chapter of it all. Not just this story but the Gundam SEED Prime trilogy as well. I just...wow...I can't believe...yeah, even the words I'm typing here are showing just how amazed and speechless I am.**_

 _ **Kira: We've really come a long way in the past two years haven't we?**_

 _ **Bumblebee: You can say that again. And more than that, this chapter is actually being posted on the same day that lyokoMARVELanime first joined fanfiction dot net.**_

 _ **Optimus: A grand occasion that deserves to be marked with an equally grand moment, for without him, this journey may never have happened.**_

 _ **Athrun: Kinda makes me sad that this is likely going to be the last time all of us Gundam SEED Prime Series cast members will be together like this, to be honest, but after looking through what takes place in this epilogue, I'm glad that we were able to end on such a high note.**_

 _ **AN: Aw you guys, I'm gonna miss working with all of you too. I mean sure, I'm gonna be working with some of you on other projects and all, but this is likely going to be the last time all of us are all together like this. Thanks for sticking with me through it all.**_

 _ **Everyone other than AN: Our pleasure lyokoMARVELanime.**_

 _ **AN: And to you readers, enjoy the final chapter in both Gundam SEED Prime Chaos Hunters and the Gundam SEED Prime Trilogy as well. Alright, everyone, let's all say it together one last time!**_

 _ **Everyone: Let's roll out to the final chapter!**_

 _ **lyokoMARVELanime does not own anything from any of either the Gundam or Transformers franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.**_

* * *

 **Final Epilogue: Continuing Legacies**

 **Location: Earth, Fifteen Earth Years After the Battle Against Unicron**

In the months that had followed the final confrontation with Unicron, many different peace talks were held between the Autobots and the Decepticons, with Lacus and Cagalli acting as mediators for the two parties, until finally, after many different arguments and small disputes, a satisfactory agreement was met for both parties. The Decepticons would be allowed to have Chaar as a world that was meant solely for them, but would be allowed to return to Cybertron if they wanted to, and the Autobots were allowed to provide them with whatever Shockwave and Soundwave's people needed to make sure that Chaar would be a more inhabitable world for everyone. Quicksilver and his team were all welcomed back into the Decepticon fold shortly after, but the Ultracons remained as an active unit that would serve as a special task force in the Decepticons whose primary objective would be to stop any threat to the new peace that came from the Decepticons' side before it could get too far out of hand. Quicksilver had been considered as the new leader of the Decepticons, given his status as Starscream's student, but the fast moving triple-changer had declined, saying that he preferred to remain as just the leader of the Ultracons for the moment, and as a result, Soundwave was named the new leader of the Decepticons. The negotiations had then ended when Optimus and Kira both exchanged a handshake with Soundwave, signifying the true beginning of peace between Autobots, Decepticons, and humans.

This was only the first of many changes to take place in the years that had followed that battle, for many other things had followed as well. Cybertron and human outposts were soon set up on Velocitron and Nebulous, acting as training facilities for the citizens of each world who wanted to join the Autobots, government buildings for visitors from other planets, and as a show of the fact that Cybertron was reconnecting with the worlds that the Ancient Cybertronians had colonized so long ago. Junkion was the only world to not gain an outpost due to the fact that they were never able to find a stable location to construct the building and Wreck-Garr had insisted that his planet stay out of any government squabbles that could arise in the future.

One of the most significant changes in the universe, however, was when the Predacons and the survivors of Quintessa ended up colonizing the world that the Ultracons had been using when the Autobots first found them, effectively making it their new home. Quicksilver was more than happy to let them have the world and use the old Ultracon base as a starting point for the civilization that they wanted to build, but still had to ask Predaking and Leobreaker why they wanted to use that planet. The two went on to explain that most of their kind had some form of animal-like alt mode, and as such, they all preferred some place that was more suitable for such creatures to live in. The vast jungles that on this world and the natural beauty of it led them to deem the world as far more suitable a place for Transformers like them to live on than any other world that they had encountered before now, including Earth, and upon seeing their point, no one argued with them at all. When the two groups left for this new world, the Dinobots went with them as well, with Grimlock saying that he and his team would still be on call if they were ever needed and that they would act as the Autobot liaisons to that world. When no one really bought that as being the entire reason, Grimlock ended up folding and said, "Me, Grimlock and Predaking still have rivalry to settle, and me, Grimlock not had good rival in anyone other than Optimus in long time. Me, Grimlock not want to say goodbye to Predaking without settling things just yet."

Everyone was more than able to accept that reasoning, and all that was left at that point was settling on an official name for the planet that the bestial Transformers were now going to call home. Several names had been suggested, but in the end, Predaking said that they would just keep things simple and call it Jungle Planet. There were no arguments with that idea since it was really the best idea anyone had out of all the ones that had been suggested.

Aside from that, life went on and everything fell into a normal pace for everyone in the new peace that was now spreading throughout the universe. With so many people in the universe now coexisting peacefully though, many people started to get bored with the day-to-day routines, even if some things from such routines were considered the more exciting aspects. Eventually, during one of the meetings between the leaders of all these worlds that had started to take place after Jungle Planet had finally reached a satisfactory level of development, that boredom was relieved when Optimus and Kira suggested that they all start making plans to venture out into the rest of the universe so that they may discover what else was waiting for them out there, both for the sake of rediscovering the worlds that the Ancient Cybertronians had visited and so that they could find out more on their own. It was a plan everyone was eager to get in on, and they were all soon putting everything they could into helping prepare for the first maiden voyage of the very first starship to be designed by the people of all of these worlds. Those plans are still underway, since nothing of such a grand scale could be completed in such a short amount of time, even with several different worlds pitching in to get it done, but that did not mean that no one was doing whatever they could to discover whatever life was out there in the galaxy, while still carrying on with their lives.

Today, the people of Earth, whether they are from the planet itself or the PLANTs, have now setup some new space colonies that follow the ideals and examples of those who had fought for peace, equality, and freedom among all of their people, and in one such colony, a group of friends were running around what had come to be known as Uzumi Nara Athha National Park in a friendly game. The group actually consisted of three human kids, two boys and a girl, and two very young Transformers, one mech and a femme, respectively, and they were all having the time of their lives at the moment.

"You can't catch us," one the human boys called out to the Transformers. This one having blonde hair, diamond eyes, and a slight tan that was common for someone who lived in Orb.

"I wouldn't bet on that, bucko," the femme of the two Transformers smirked in reply as she redoubled her running speed to catch up with any one of the three humans. The femme in question having white and bluish-green armor.

"Ah come on, guys, slow down a little," the human girl, who was clearly related to the first boy whined. You could easily tell that the two were siblings if not twins by the fact that they looked pretty similar except for the fact that the girl had indigo hair instead of blonde.

"Don't tell me you're giving up already, Lenore! We've totally got Moonracer and Hot Rod on the ropes," the final human boy, who had dark hair and cerulean eyes, stated as he turned to his friend while trying to run backwards, only to trip over his feet and fall on his butt as a result.

"Looks like we just earned an easy win on you, Siegel," the mech, who had now been identified as Hot Rod smirked as he reached forward to tag his friend. Hot Rod was an average sized Transformer with red and orange armor with a gold flame design on his chest, while a yellow racing fin could be seen on his back like a set of wings.

Siegel's attempts to scramble away were soon aided by his other human friend, who managed to shout, "Hot Rod, look! It's the Aerialbots!"

"Really? Where," Hot Rod exclaimed, falling for the oldest trick in the book, which he only realized after Siegel had scampered away. "Oh no fair, Uzumi!"

The five just continued playing around, laughing at one and other whenever one of them fell for some type of trick that one of the others had played on them, until someone suddenly called out to all of them, bringing the game to a halt so that they could turn to see a familiar blue and yellow race car pulling up along with a police truck, with Athrun Zala climbing out of the former when it had pulled to a stop so that he could wave them over. Seeing the blue haired man prompted both Uzumi and Lenore to start racing over as they shouted, "Hey Dad!" while Siegel shouted, "Hey, Uncle Athrun!"

"Is something wrong, Major Zala," Moonracer asked once she and the rest of the group had reached him.

"Relax Moonracer, there's no serious emergency, but we all need to get to the hospital right away," Athrun informed the young femme.

That confused all five of the friends until Hot Rod asked, "Wait, you don't mean that…"

"Yep," Athrun nodded with a wide smile.

"Well what're we standing around here for? Let's get going," Hot Rod shouted as he transformed into an Earth sports car. "Hop in, Siegel."

Before the brunette could even take one step towards Hot Rod, he found himself being pulled back by his uncle, who said, "Oh no you don't! Last time I let you ride in Hot Rod when we needed to get somewhere in a hurry, all three of us got in trouble with your mom, Hot Rod's mom, and your Aunt Cagalli."

"Aw, please Uncle Athrun," Siegel pleaded.

"No," Athrun stated, standing his ground as best as he could against the sad puppy face his nephew was giving him. "Now, you are going to get inside of Smokescreen, and we're _all_ going to go over to the hospital at a fast pace that doesn't exceed the speed limit."

Before any further protests could be given, Hot Rod suddenly transformed once again, and scooped Siegel up before depositing the laughing boy into his vehicle mode when he returned to said mode. "Now why ride with some old 'Bot when he can ride in style. See you guys there!"

Athrun tried to say something, but his voice was completely drowned out by Hot Rod's engines roaring to life as he took off, while his long-time friend and Autobot guardian was left to grumble. "'Some old 'Bot'! I am not some 'Bot, and I am definitely not old," Smokescreen fumed. "I swear, the next time I see him in training at the Autobot Academy, I am giving him a personal world of pain."

"Let it go, Smokescreen," Athrun sighed in defeat. After getting his own kids into the race car Autobot, he looked to where Hot Rod and Siegel had raced off to and added, "Where did their parents go wrong with those boys?"

"It's a little early to be asking that question, isn't it, Major Zala," Strongarm asked from where she was sitting behind Smokescreen.

"Maybe, but if they both keep going with the way they act now, then I'm going to need the practice," Athrun swiftly replied before he climbed into the driver's seat of Smokescreen's vehicle mode, while Moonracer assumed her motorcycle vehicle mode, and soon enough, they too were off to the hospital.

* * *

Despite the head-start that Hot Rod and Siegel had, the group still all made it to the hospital at the same time, where they were soon greeted by Lenore and Uzumi's mother, as well as Siegel, Hot Rod, and Moonracer's, leading Athrun to start praying that none of them would find out about how Siegel got there. Sadly, there was no chance of Siegel being able to hide anything from his mother. "Hey sweetie," Lacus said as she scooped her little boy into her arms for a tight hug while Cagalli did the same with her and Athrun's two kids. "You made sure to ride with Uncle Athrun, right?"

"…Yes," Siegel tried to lie, but his mother did not buy it for a minute.

"Siegel." Lacus had adopted the warning tone that all mothers gained when they knew their kid was lying and expected the truth from them.

"Yes mommy," Siegel tried again.

"Siegel Haruma Yamato," Lacus warned once again, this time adding the use of her child's full name to the warning.

Hearing this led Siegel to fold and admit that he rode there with Hot Rod, leading Lacus, Cagalli, and Elita to throw disapproving looks in Athrun's direction. "Hey, don't look at me," Athrun immediately defended, his hands instantly raised in a similar fashion as he did. "I tried to get him into Smokescreen, but Hot Rod just scooped him up before I could do anything."

That excuse did save Athrun, but led Hot Rod to end up as the victim of the disapproving looks. "What? Athrun said we were in a hurry and I just wanted to make sure we didn't waste time with some silly argument," Hot Rod tried to say in his defense.

Cagalli just sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose before looking to Elita and saying, "I swear, I think you and Optimus are going to need to talk with him about setting bad examples for our kids later, Elita."

"Maybe we should all do that, because there are some days that Optimus and I think that all of our kids have moments of being bad influences on each other," Elita told Cagalli.

"Hey! I wasn't doing anything wrong," Moonracer protested.

"I know you didn't, kiddo," Arcee reassured her daughter with a comforting pat on the shoulder. "More importantly, I'm pretty sure we're not all here to discuss parenting methods."

"Arcee's right. So, what's the news," Athrun asked, clearly excited about whatever it was they were all there for.

"We don't know yet," Cagalli replied. "We're still waiting for someone to come and tell us that we can go in and see them."

Upon hearing this, everyone nodded and quickly found a place to sit down and wait, and Athrun took this opportunity to take a look around at his friends for a moment. Aside from the obvious new responsibilities of becoming parents that Arcee and Elita now had, none of the Transformers had really changed that much in recent years, at least appearance-wise. The only real significant change that could really be noted aside from when they became parents was when Bumblebee and Arcee finally tied the knot and became sparkmates, a moment that had caused any and all emotional barriers Arcee had to come crashing down as she openly shed the Cybertronian equivalent of several tears of joy. In the years that had followed, Bumblebee eventually become a commanding officer in the Autobot forces, standing proudly on the same level of command as Ultra Magnus and leading many to think that he would become Optimus' successor someday, while Smokescreen was eventually promoted to leader of the Autobot Earth Division. The young 'Bot had tried to say that someone like Bulkhead or Ironhide would have been better choices, but when Bumblebee told him that he had more than earned it, Smokescreen found he just could not refuse. Beyond that, the only real changes one could see would be in the human members of their little group.

Once again in terms of appearance, it was really nothing too noticeable, mostly in cases like that of Lacus, but one could see a few of the obvious things that had changed in them as they had gotten older. Lacus herself still kept her hair at his usual length, but had taken to wear much more simple outfits be it in a formal setting or even a casual one, though one could not usually see the difference between the two nowadays since the two styles were actually pretty similar to one another. The most notable change for Lacus though was the fact that she had been elected as the new leader of the Sol Federation when Cagalli and Audrey's term had come to an end, a position she was happy to accept if it meant helping to ensure that the peace they worked so hard to achieve was kept. As a result, she had left Yzak to take over as supreme chairman of the PLANTs, a position that the silver haired man had accepted with a surprising amount of hesitance.

Yzak's term as the new leader of the PLANTs had been filled with him complaining to his friends about the job even more than when he had last had a job in politics, but thankfully, those complaints were easily settled with some help from both Nicol and Shiho, who had both become his top advisors after he first took on the job. Really, the only member of the Joule Team who stayed in the military was Dearka, and shortly after Heine, Shinn, and Lunamaria had become a regular members, it had been renamed as the Elsman Team. Dearka had not been entirely sure about continuing on as a full-time soldier, but when his wife, Miriallia told him that he should do it since being a warrior to protect others was what he did best, he found himself with no way to argue with her. Afterwards, the only real change that came to the old Z.A.F.T. Team was when Caleb La Flaga managed to secure himself a future spot on the team for when he finished studying at the Sol Federation's military training academy. It had taken a lot work on his part to convince both his parents to let him follow in their footsteps and become a soldier that was dedicated to defending their world, more so in the case of Murrue than Mu. The former captain of the _Archangel_ had not been kidding when she said that she would do whatever she could to keep her child out of the military life.

Cagalli on the other hand had returned to her position as being only a chief representative of Orb along with Audrey, since their term ended when they finally felt that they could no longer handle leading both their own nation and the entire planet, and since then she was often seen wearing some version of her government uniform outside of when she was hoping to avoid the press or when she was spending time with her friends. Of course, that was not the only thing about Cagalli that had changed, as a few years ago, the blonde soon found herself needing to wear a pair of glasses, as she was doing right at that moment. When Athrun first saw the blonde come home with the black rimmed pair she currently wore, Cagalli was afraid that she would look completely ridiculous to everyone, including him, but Athrun had immediately reassured her that he thought she looked cute in them. That had led him to receive a very nice reward from his wife that night. On another note that they would insist was unrelated to that night if you were to ask them, a week afterwards, Cagalli had found out she was pregnant with her Lenore and Uzumi, and neither she nor Athrun could stop smiling for weeks afterwards.

Speaking of people who could not stop smiling, it was at that point that a broadly smiling Shinn Asuka came over to them, clearly doing his best to keep a slow pace instead of breaking out into an incredibly fast sprint. "Hey guys, there's someone who'd like to meet you all," Shinn said in a soft, gentle tone that most of them had never heard from the Gundam pilot before now.

Everyone was instantly on their feet and following Shinn to one of the hospital rooms, and upon entering, they were all greeted with the sight of a tired, yet still overjoyed Lunamaria Asuka in a hospital gown and holding a small bundle in her arms. When she noticed everyone at the door, Luna's smile seemed to brighten up a little more before she waved for them all to come in, and the minute they had all made it to the side of her bed, they were soon smiling almost as widely as Luna was. There, sitting peacefully in Lunamaria's arms, was a baby boy with a small lock of dark hair, and when he opened his eyes a little, they could all see that he had indigo colored eyes just like his mother. "Say hello to mine and Shinn's son, everyone," Luna whispered to her friends.

"Aww, Luna, he's adorable," Lacus cooed happily.

"He looks a lot like his father aside from his eyes," Cagalli added with a smile of her own. "Although, I was almost expecting him to have your hair, Luna."

"That's actually something that only the girls in my family seemed to get," Lunamaria explained, earning nods of understanding in response while Shinn moved around to the other side of his wife and recently-born first child.

"So, what's his name," Athrun asked, knowing that the Asukas had been keeping any and all ideas they had for their first child's name to themselves until now. Not even Mayu and Meyrin would say what those ideas were, no matter how much the rest of their group had pestered them.

Shinn and Lunamaria exchanged a quick look before they replied, "Well, after thinking about it for a while, we figured that there was really only one name we could give to our first son, because no other name seemed to fit."

Lunamaria smiled as she held up her child a little more for everyone to see a bit better and announced, "Everyone, meet little Rey Asuka."

Not one single person had anything to say in dispute to that, because they all knew exactly why the two had settled on that name for their first child, and the only way any of them would have protested to it would be if said child had been a girl. After a few moments of silence, in which everyone smiled at the new family of three, Athrun made his way over to Shinn and placed his hand on the younger pilot's shoulder as he said, "I know that Rey would have been honored."

"Thanks Athrun," Shinn nodded. "Though I hope you'll be just as honored, because Luna and I both want you to be our child's godfather." When Shinn saw Athrun's eyes widen a little in surprise, he quickly said, "You helped us a lot since we first met you, and not just as a fellow soldier or a commanding officer, but as a friend too. You helped save Meyrin's life, helped us to see through Sentinel's deceptions, and showed us how to really be the kind of people we are today. I figured that if you could do all that for us, then who knows just how much you can do for our son."

Athrun could not find any reason to argue with what Shinn had said, so he could in the end, he smiled and said, "Well, you're right about at least one of those things. I would be honored."

Shinn then pulled Athrun in for a quick bro-hug and after the two split apart, he glanced around the room and asked, "By the way, where's Kira? I mean, I know that Optimus wasn't going to be able to be here given all the responsibilities he has now, and that Kira's the first Prime of humanity and Earth and all, but I kinda figured he would be here today."

"I can answer that," Lacus said as she finally managed to step away from Lunamaria, the newborn in her arms, and the other girls who were busily cooing over the small child. "Kira said that he would be here later on, but there was something that he had to check in on first. He wouldn't say exactly what it was though, but he did say that it would be something that he believed would be vital in ensuring the peace we've obtained stays strong even in the new generation."

Athrun and Shinn both nodded at this and just let the matter drop for now, knowing that if Kira would say something like that, it was indeed very important. Still, that did not mean that they were not curious about what it was that Kira was doing right now.

* * *

Somewhere well away from any of the colonies though still close enough for one to be able to reach any of them in at least half a day's time, the various engineering groups of Earth and Cybertron had set up a special mobile suit development lab, with Morgenroete acting as the leading force in their efforts, and every single thing in this particular lab is geared towards the creation and design of mobile suits for the next generation, with a main focus on Gundams. This lab, known as Cyber Cosmic, is where Admiral Kira Yamato Prime was currently moving through with his old friend Banagher Links, the new head of Morgenroete for about five years now after Erica Simmons finally decided to retire from the position and act as merely a consultant for them while doing her best to help raise her family.

"You know, I just heard from Audrey, who heard from Cagalli that Luna has just given birth, and the others are all there right now to meet the newest Asuka," Banagher informed Kira.

"Well don't tell me anything else. I want to find out about the rest of this for myself since I'm going straight there once I'm done here," Kira insisted.

Banagher just nodded in response, and the two continued along their way in silence before the pilot of Unicron Gundam decided to speak up once again, "So how have Lacus and little Siegel been lately?"

"Lacus is doing pretty good, and so is Siegel. I'm trying my best to spend as much time as possible with them both, but some days are harder than others considering," Kira replied, trailing off at the end as he gestured to the uniform he had come to wear ever since he first became a Prime.

Banagher nodded in response to this knowing exactly what Kira was referring to. If it were up to Kira, he would be spending every second he could with his son, but his responsibilities as the first Prime of humanity and Earth often got in the way of that. Still, Kira always more than made up for it however he could by making sure every free second he had was dedicated to quality father and son time, and if it was not spent like that, then he was spending that time with Lacus. Of course, Kira made sure that spending time with his son was as much of a priority as possible, because he knew that despite how well Siegel seemed to hide it, everyone around them believed that the youngest member of the Yamato family was going to end up following in one or both of his parents' footsteps and become some kind of great leader, whether it be as a future human Prime or as just a world leader of Earth. If he was being honest with himself, Kira really did not want for his son to go down the same path that he had, but when Siegel made it clear to him that he wanted to be just like his father when he grew up, Kira knew that there was not likely going to be any chance of dissuading him from the idea.

In fact, that very determination that his son held was actually part of the reason that Kira was here at Cyber Cosmic right now, as evidenced when he and Banagher finally came to a stop in an observation deck that looked out into the area where the next generation Gundams were being built right now. Though the only machine that Kira was wondering about was the one that was currently resting behind a large, closed door. "Is that it," Kira asked Banagher as his friend approached the controls for the door.

"Yep," Banagher confirmed, and as soon as he punched in his authorization and all the other necessary codes, the door opened to reveal the Gundam that was resting behind it.

The minute that the two saw the Gundam that was behind the door, neither of them could help but gasp in awe of the machine. It was almost like the perfect fusion of the Strike Gundam and the Strike Freedom Gundam, as evidenced by how it was clearly meant to move as fast as the Strike Freedom, but still had a bit more bulk to it in terms of muscle mass. They could also see the beam sabers and railguns that were mounted on the outside of its waist and legs, along with a pair of wings on its back. The wings were actually not as large as those of the Strike Freedom, but they were still large enough to be noticeable, and from where Kira was standing, he could see that there was a very likely chance that the wings were meant to expand in some way when they were in use. The final thing that had to be noted was that the machine appeared to have its Phase Shift armor activated, as it was not currently a dull grey, but instead sported a full color scheme. Where the Strike Freedom was black, this machine was now red, with the arms also sporting the same color, but beyond that the machine still retained the white and blue colors from the Strike Freedom, save for the wings, which were shinning, shimmering silver.

"Wow," Kira finally gasped, honestly unable to think of anything else to say at the moment once he had gotten a good look at this new Gundam.

"Don't be too impressed or anything just yet. It is still in development," Banagher advised. "We've made it a point to equip it with the new Cyber Phase Shift armor, like the other Gundams for its generation, but we're still in the process of calibrating and completing its other weapons. The weapons that its Artificial T-Cog provides it are all completely ready, along with the other functions that the T-Cog provides save for transformation, since as usual, we leave the choice of vehicle modes up to the pilot, and the beam sabers are ready as well, but that's just about it. Everything else still needs to be added in, but I'm sure it'll all be ready by the deadline you've given us." Banagher then paused in his speech for a moment before he turned and asked Kira the one question he had been wondering about for some time now. "Are you sure you don't want this to be finished sooner? I mean, I understand that there's no need to rush development of new Gundams right now, but I doubt I need to remind you that the Strike Freedom can't really hold out forever. This could be the perfect machine for you to take on next."

"I know that, Banagher, but I'm positive that there's no need for you to hurry up with its development. The Strike Freedom is still the best machine for me to be piloting right now, and it always will be for a long time to come," Kira confirmed with a smile. After a minute or so, he then added, "Besides, this machine isn't going to be meant for me or any of the rest of us. This is going to be a machine that will help ensure the peace and safety of the future through the new generation."

Banagher did not need to be a genius to catch on to the meaning behind Kira's words, so he simply nodded in response before turning back to look over the Gundam before them once again. In his personal opinion, there was no better person to pilot this machine at the moment than the man standing next to him, but he knew that Kira did not want him to build this or any of the other Gundams for the current generation. They were all being built for the new generation that was quickly beginning to rise around them. It was all part of the grand plan that Kira and the other members of the Gundam Team had thought of to make sure that the peace they had all fought so hard for would not ever be threatened in the way that it had been so many years ago, and that it would be well protected should something like that ever occur. Thinking back on all that they had each accomplished, Banagher felt proud to have been made an honorary member of the Gundam Team, but that did not mean that he intended to really become a full time member of the group any time soon. After all, he had no intention of ever leaving his wife alone. "Still, you have to admit, this machine would be perfect for a human Prime," Banagher remarked.

"Yeah, and that goes for past, present, and future," Kira stated. "This machine will help keep our battle going until we've achieved the dream of true peace throughout the entire universe. The Freedom Prime Gundam."

The two looked on at this promise of the future for a few more minutes before they finally sealed the vault that the Freedom Prime Gundam was standing in once more and turned to leave, both making a beeline for Cyber Cosmic's Ground Bridge generator so that they could meet up with the rest of their friends and meet the newest member of the Asuka family. Glancing back for one last quick look at the new Gundam before it disappeared from sight, Kira could not help but smile one more time at the promise that it gave for the future, and at the same time, he found himself also thinking about what they had all been through to reach this point in their lives.

There had been a great many battles and struggles in all of their lives, and they had all achieved so much. At the same time though, they had also lost a great deal as well, but if you were to ask Kira, those defeats and losses had only served to make each and every one of them stronger. That did not just apply to battles that they had lost, but to friends that had been lost as well. Now, all that was left for them to do was to step into the final adventures that awaited them all before passing the torch to the new generation.

When he and Banagher arrived at the hospital on Space Colony that the others were currently gathered, and they all saw the little bundle of joy in Lunamaria's arms, coupled with the smiling faces of friends and family alike that were gathered around, Kira could only smile even more brightly at this great example of just how bright the future truly was now, even as he wrapped his son in his arms while thinking of a message that had recently been sent out across the stars not so long ago.

* * *

 **The long war between the Autobots and Decepticons has at last come to an end, but even with such a great conflict finally brought to a close, we and our many friends and allies know probably better than anyone that there will always be some form of danger, and some great enemy out there to threaten all that we have worked so hard to achieve. Despite knowing this though, none of us are afraid, for we also know that whatever challenges may rise, we will be able to face so long as we stand together as one. Much has changed for us all in the past few years, but as a friend of mine once said in a message not so different from this one, none of what has happened means that this is the end, but merely a new beginning. Simply put, this is yet another transformation. My name is Kira Yamato Prime, and I send this message to all life across the stars in the vast expanse of the universe: We eagerly await the day when we finally meet you, and we will welcome you into our lives with open arms, hoping for a peaceful relationship, but know that if you approach any of us with hostile intent, we will be more than ready to defend both ourselves and our friends. Our battle to keep the peace shall always continue until the day that Primus, Optimus Prime, and so many others have spoken of has finally come. Till the day when all are one.**

* * *

 **THE END**

* * *

 _ **AN: Yep, you read all of that right. The story's over. The legacy concluded, and yet where one adventure ends, more are just waiting to begin, because these guys are never going to give up no matter what. Don't think that means that there's going to be a sequel to this story though, because like I said at the beginning, this is the final chapter in the Gundam SEED Prime Trilogy, meaning that after this, I'm pretty much done with this series.**_

 ** _Shinn: Aren't you forgetting about that little series of one-shots that you call Gundam SEED Prime Series: Deleted Scenes?_**

 ** _AN: I'm not forgetting about it, but I'm not likely going to do anything with it for a while. Now that I'm done with this story, I think I'm gonna lay off the Transformers &Gundam crossover stories for a while. I've already got a lot of other projects that need my attention, some that are already going and are in series need of an update and some that I haven't even started yet._**

 ** _Bulkhead: Well, no matter what happens, we're just glad that you were able to see this whole thing through to the end like this, and it has been our pleasure working on it with you._**

 ** _Cagalli: Still, I can't help but wonder if you really don't have any plans to expand this little universe more after this?_**

 ** _AN: I've actually been getting that question quite a bit from one or two reviewers recently. I'm going to be totally honest, I myself never really had any plans after this story here. There was not going to be any Beast Wars type of thing, no Next Generation adventures, or anything else like that after Chaos Hunters aside from what you all saw here in this chapter. I may have alluded to that, but really, this is all just a little something to get all of your minds going a bit in wonder of just what adventures await the heroes of the new rising generation. Sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping that I would continue on to a future thing with this._**

 ** _Arcee: Well, at least we get to take a break from all the craziness that comes with working with you for a while, sort of._**

 ** _AN: Don't make it sound like doing so is such a bad thing, please. Yeah, this adventure is over, and I don't have any plans for anything else in this series' timeline any time soon, but no one can really know what the future holds. I have mentioned a couple of times that I might do a little thing that takes place during the time-gap between Destiny Sentinels and Chaos Hunters, but I wouldn't count on that happening if I were any of you. For now, all I can really tell you is to just be patient and wait for the day when my next Transformers &Gundam crossover, Transformers 00 comes up on this site._**

 ** _Besides, it's not like this is the only adventure I've got rolling on here. There's plenty of other stories that are just waiting for all of you to discover them if you haven't already. So if you enjoyed this grand tale of the Cybertron Cosmic Era, and you want to see more of my works, hop on over to my profile, look through what else I've got, and if anything catches your fancy, by all means, get into the action of a new adventure. I don't have any sort of shortage on them right now, and I've still got other ideas that are yet to come._**

 ** _To all you readers, writers, reviewers, and really just anyone who loves a good story of any variety who have taken the time to read either just one of these stories, or who've read them all the way from start to finish, thanks again for sticking with me and the rest of us in the Gundam SEED Prime Trilogy right to the end like this. You guys rock, and you help to make these adventures all the better. And now, I suppose there's really only one thing left for me to say, and I guess for now, I'll be saying it for the last time in this trilogy..._**

 _ **Please read and review, favorite each story in the series if you liked the entire trilogy, and I'll see you all again in another grand adventure!**_


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